ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Thursday sought Rangers and FC troops to ensure law and order during Punjab and KP polls, ARY News reported, quoting sources.
The demand was made by the Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja in a meeting with the Interior Secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar in Islamabad.
Khokhar asked the ECP chief to forward a written demand for the troops to the interior ministry and informed him about the available troops of Rangers.
The interior secretary in a meeting with the Election Commission of Pakistan chief Sikandar Sultan Raja assured that his ministry is bound to comply with the Supreme Court’s orders regarding elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The Supreme Court, in a 3-2 verdict, ruled on Wednesday that elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab should be held within 90 days.
Read more: SC orders to hold elections in Punjab, KP in 90 days
CJP Justice Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Munib Akhtar and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar supported the verdict, while Justice Jamal Mandokhail and Justice Mansoor Ali Shah opposed the admissibility of the suo moto notice and dissented from the majority verdict.
Justice Shah and Justice Mandokhail in their dissenting notes agreed with the position of Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Athar Minallah. “The matter was already being heard in the high courts, Supreme Court cannot take suo moto notice on the undertrial cases in the high courts.”
