Army troops to be deployed at highly sensitive polling stations in Sindh

Sindh Caretaker Information Minister Muhammad Ahmed Shah has said army troops are going to be deployed at highly sensitive polling stations in the province from February 5 to February 10, 2024, for the peaceful conduct of the upcoming general elections.

He stated this on Friday while speaking at a press briefing about the steps being taken by the caretaker government to maintain law and order on the occasion of the February 8 elections.

Shah said that ambiguity had come to an end concerning the polls. He said the top army officials and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had held meetings to finalise security arrangements for the polling.

He assured the media persons that the interim government had been taking all the necessary poll-related arrangements as per the directives of the ECP.

He said the presiding officers to be posted at the polling stations wouldn’t be allowed to go home till the completion of the polling process, leaves of the government personnel posted at the polling stations had been cancelled.

The minister said the interim government had released all the funds required for smooth, peaceful, and trouble-free conduct of the general elections. Police, Rangers, and armed forces’ personnel would be deployed to maintain security on the polling day, he added.

He told the media persons that there would be a total of 19,006 polling stations being established in Sindh for the February 8 polls, and over 5,900 of them are declared normal from the security point of view. Some 6,531 polling stations have been declared sensitive while 6,496 polling stations are highly sensitive in the province.

Some 122,023 police personnel would be deployed to maintain security on the polling day. Some 7,000 personnel of the Quick Reaction Force of the police would be deployed to maintain peace on election day.

The minister said 550 personnel of the provincial Excise Police and 22,870 lady health workers would also perform duties on the polling day, and Rs1.5 billion had been released by the provincial government for the repair of 386 government-run school buildings damaged due to floods.

He said over 6,000 closed-circuit television cameras would be installed to electronically monitor the polling process. He said that video recordings of these cameras would be preserved for any future probe into any adverse law and order situation during the polling. He said that computer and wireless communication systems had also been installed for the smooth conduct of the polls. Shah stated that the relevant agencies had been making all-out efforts for the last many months to maintain law and order. He added that proper planning and backup plans had been prepared to maintain security for the general elections. He said the interim government and relevant agencies stood shoulder to shoulder with the ECP for the smooth conduct of the polls.

He said that in the earlier polls, there had been no punitive action against absentee government employees while this time due disciplinary action would be taken against personnel found absent from the poll-related duties.

Shah further said the Sindh government had been in touch with all the mainstream political parties. He appealed to their leadership to lend full support to the authorities for the smooth conduct of polls. He said Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure had been imposed for maintaining law and order on the polling day.

To a question, he said that cellular phone service shouldn’t be suspended on the polling day. He said that there might be a localised suspension of cellular phone service due to any troubled law and order situation on election day.

He said the enemies of Pakistan present inside or outside the country had been attempting to vitiate the security situation.