ISLAMABAD: Expressing concern over the purported harassment and threats to election candidates in Narowal and Multan, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Sunday asked the interim chief ministers of the four provinces to ensure their security and protection.
The electoral body wrote to the CMs and chief secretaries of the four provinces to provide security to all candidates at once.
The letter comes in the backdrop of the reports that a PML-N candidate, Rana Iqbal Siraj, was allegedly beaten up by security forces to change his loyalty.
The provincial governments have been instructed to improve overall security situation in their respective provinces for the conduct of fair and transparent polls scheduled on July 25.
The Commission directed that all institutions should play their role for the holding of transparent elections under Article 220 of the Constitution.
The Commission’s request to the Ministry of Defence for deployment of at least 350,000 armed forces personnel in the upcoming general elections has already been approved.
The core purpose of the deployment of military will be maintaining law and order during the elections countrywide. Besides, police personnel will also be deployed inside and outside polling stations to ensure implementation of the ECP’s code of conduct.
The security of printing press, printing of ballot papers and their delivery to respective polling stations will be carried out under supervision of the army, ECP officials said.
It is pertinent to mention here that, the ECP has registered 105,955,407 voters including 59,224,262 males and 46,731,145 females for upcoming general elections.
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