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Tuesday March 19, 2024

CM satisfied with measures for fair polls

By Bureau report
July 22, 2018

PESHAWAR: Caretaker Chief Minister Justice (Retired) Dost Muhammad Khan has expressed satisfaction over the measures for peaceful and fair elections in the province.

He was evaluating all issues, security measures and the data from different provincial government departments, said an official handout.

The chief minister was speaking at a presentation given to him on the level of preparedness of different provincial government departments under the caretaker chief minister directives for the smooth, free and transparent elections in the province.

“We would never allow anyone to influence our impartiality and neutrality in the whole election process,” he said.

“It should be clear to everyone including the political parties and candidates that facilitating peaceful and impartial conduct of elections is our constitutional obligation that would be never compromised,” he added.

“The installation of CCTV cameras was in full swing as per chief minister’s directives. Over 950 CCTV cameras have been installed so far. In the given situation the provincial administration has to make extra arrangements for the general elections because of the merger of seven new districts of erstwhile Fata into Khyber Pakhtunkhwa,” the meeting was told.

All deputy commissioners have been sensitised for making all-out arrangements at the polling stations on the polling day.

These arrangements include the storage of election material, facilitating the polling staff and the entire election structure throughout the province.

Extra security would be provided to sensitive polling stations.

Security arrangements finalized for election in Nowshera: A senior official said on Saturday security cameras had been installed in 189 most sensitive polling stations and a crisis management cell had also been established at the district court.

Speaking at a press briefing here, Deputy Commissioner Irshad Sodhar said that a total of 572 polling stations had been established for two national assembly and five provincial assembly seats in the district, wherein 189 polling stations were declared most sensitive, 340 sensitive and 48 declared normal.

He said that 572 presiding officers and 5,898 subordinate polling staff would perform duties during the elections.

The official added that 7,57,039 were registered voters wherein 3,27,465 female voters and 4,29,564 male voters were in the district.

Irshad Sodhar said that ballot papers and other election-related material would be distributed under the tight supervision of army personnel and judiciary officials.

He said for this purpose five receiving points have been established in the government Girls Degree College, Nowshera.

The official said to ensure fool-proof security 7,864 army personnel and 2,000 law-enforcement officials including Frontier Constabulary and police would provide security cover to the elections.