Caretaker govt forms special committees to monitor poll process

The caretaker Sindh government has constituted special intelligence committees at the provincial, divisional and district levels to monitor the polling process in order to ensure transparency, independence and impartiality in the entire election process.

Chief Secretary Major (retd) Azam Suleman Khan said this on Tuesday as he met in his office Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad. The two discussed in detail the arrangements being made to hold the upcoming general elections on July 25 in the province.

The chief secretary informed the ECP secretary that arrangements had been made to install systems of closed-circuit television cameras at the polling stations declared sensitive from the security point of view.

He briefed the top official of the ECP that personnel of the Sindh Rangers, the Sindh Police and the Pakistan Army would provide assistance to the provincial administration in ensuring due security at the polling stations.

He said all steps had been taken to ensure uninterrupted water and sanitation services, electricity and special provisions for visits by special persons for voting at the polling stations. He added that comprehensive steps were being taken to ensure foolproof security before the polling day, on the day of the general elections, and afterwards till the complete counting of the votes and the compilation of the polling results.

Sindh Inspector General of Police Amjad Javed Saleemi also briefed the ECP secretary on the steps being taken by the provincial police force to ensure security for the polling process in the province.

The meeting among others was attended by Sindh Election Commissioner Mohammad Yusuf Khan Khattak, Home Secretary Haroon Ahmed Khan, Secretary Implementation Syed Mohsin Ali Shah and Karachi’s Additional Inspector General of Police Mushtaq Mahar.

The Sindh cabinet in its meeting held on June 22 decided to install special surveillance cameras at all the 4,154 polling stations in the province declared highly sensitive from the security point of view. These include 1,977 in Karachi, 1,206 in Hyderabad, 176 in Mirpurkhas, 124 in Shaheed Benazirbad, 289 Sukkur and 382 in Larkana.

The cabinet meeting was informed that there would be around 17,606 polling stations in all in the province, of them 4,350 are most sensitive, 7,999 sensitive and 5,257 normal.