KP govt finalises preparations for general elections

PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa caretaker cabinet on Friday finalized the preparations for the general elections with the pledge to make every effort to ensure free and fair elections in the province.

Chief Minister Syed Arshad Hussain Shah chaired the meeting which finalised the preparations in the light of the directives of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The cabinet was briefed on the preparations for the elections slated for February 8, next year. These included availability and placement of human resources, mapping of missing facilities, availability and placement of IT staff and equipment, provision of ramps at the polling stations to facilitate persons with disabilities, rationalization of sensitive and most sensitive polling stations, security arrangements, needs of CCTV cameras, transport arrangements for polling staff & equipment, security plan, standard operating procedures (SOPs) for political gatherings, identification of spots in every district for political gatherings.

The general elections will be held in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa for 55 national constituencies and 145 provincial assemblies. As many as 15,737 polling stations will be set up throughout the province, out of which 4843 will be for men and 4285 for female voters.

The cabinet was informed that 4812 polling stations had been identified as the most sensitive, whereas 6581 as sensitive.

Similarly, 1919 polling stations fall in snowbound areas. Statistics made available by the Election Commission of Pakistan indicate that 54.54 per cent of the voters are men whereas 45.46 pc of the registered voters are women.

It was informed that eight detailed sessions had already been held by the chief minister and chief secretary to work out the arrangements and preparations for the elections in addition to notifying gathering spaces in every tehsil of the province and permitting 100 government spaces for holding large political gatherings.

As for the security arrangements, it was informed that additional security personnel would be mobilized from the Population Welfare, Excise, Forest and Tourism departments to meet the shortage of security personnel.

The cabinet was told that an emergency plan had been prepared which would be notified by the Health Department soon.

It was also informed that as many as 11,668 CCTV cameras were needed inside and outside the polling stations.

The cabinet was informed that 1280 IT experts had been identified and committed to ensuring free and fair elections.

Security guidelines have been placed for political gatherings which include guidelines for corner and public meetings, identification of venues, time observance, use of loudspeakers, hate and defamatory speech, affixing of promotional materials, and security of political leadership as per the directives of ECP local administration and law enforcement agencies, it was added.

He reiterated its commitment to provide a level playing field to all political parties and asked them to follow the SOPs during their election campaigns.

The chief minister said all resources had been mobilized for the purpose and every effort was being made to ensure transparency and efficient utilization of the taxpayers money.

The cabinet approved the establishment of Khyber Medical College University and Ayub Medical College University as part of the Khushal Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Programme of the provincial government. He directed the Higher Education Department to work out the necessary modalities for the effective and timely launching of the program.