Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo, President Punjab PPP, has urged the Election Commission of Pakistan to keep strict vigil on the Returning Officers and the Assistant Returning Officers to circumvent any attempt of the ruling party to steal the mandate of the people during the local bodies’ elections in the province. The ruling Party reportedly intend to use these officers to manipulate the elections in subtle and clandestine manners, he added.
This he said in a statement issued from here today adding it was for this reason that the opposition parties had been consistently urging the ECP to take Returning and Assistant Returning Officers from the Judiciary because officers of Punjab bureaucracy were like personal servants of the top functionaries of the government.
He pointed out that the deployment of army personnel at the polling stations had assumed added significance because no Punjab government servant would dare to oblige the political masters in their presence because of the certainty of predictable consequences leading to the termination of his service.
He observed that the PPP and the rest of the opposition political parties were on the same page so far as the deployment army personnel were concerned adding the ECP should not presumably face any problem in the acceptance of the demand.
He pointed out that the added very important advantage of the deployment would be to ensure peaceful polling on the day besides ensuring the transparency and impartiality of the electoral process.
He further said that the deployment of the army was absolutely critical because the opposition parties had repeatedly demanded the resignations of the members of the ECP because they had become controversial.
