Security measures for elections reviewed

LAHORE : Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Bilal Siddique Kamyana Saturday chaired a meeting of senior police officers at his office to review security arrangements for upcoming general elections.

SSP (Operations) and SP (Security) briefed about the security plan and the participants discussed various issues related to security arrangements, including additional staff deployment at sensitive polling stations, and secure transportation of election material and ballot papers. The briefing highlighted the use of riot forces on polling day to address any untoward situations and the use of the Election Monitoring mobile app for assistance during the election. The meeting also discussed matters related to the establishment of check posts, barriers, barbwires, metal detectors, walk-through gates, installation of cameras, and issues concerning the ladies' search cabin on polling day. CCPO Kamyana stated that the police were fully prepared for the peaceful conduct of the general elections. He expressed a firm commitment to assist in the organisation of free, fair and transparent elections and mentioned that a comprehensive security plan has been devised for the peaceful conduct of the elections. Kamyana informed that the best security was being provided for electoral activities. He emphasised the coordination of all security agencies to ensure a secure and transparent electoral process. Action will be taken without discrimination in case of any violation of the electoral code of conduct.

He assured that stringent security measures will be taken for the safe transportation of election material and ballot papers. CCPO issued directives for ground-level police performance on election day, emphasising the need to maintain peace and order. The Lahore police have initiated a city-wide flag march to uphold security.

Supervisory officers were instructed to regularly assess election-related activities in their respective areas.

The meeting was attended by DIG (Investigations) Imran Kishwar, DIG (Security) Kamran Adil, DIG (Administration) Muntazir Mehdi, SSP (Operations) Syed Ali Raza, CTO Lahore and SP (Security) Akhlaq Allah Tarar.