AJK elections: 97 polling stations set up in Rawalpindi

Rawalpindi : Ninety-seven polling stations have been set up in Rawalpindi for the Azad Jammu and Kashmir elections while as many as 1,500 police officers and constables would be deployed to ensure law and order and enforce the code of conduct issued by Election Commission.

City Police Officer (CPO) Rawalpindi Muhammad Ahsan Younas and Returning Officers on Saturday handed over the election material to the officers concerned in Garden College.

Senior Superintendent Police (SSP) Operations, Divisional SPs, SP Security, SP CIA, SDPOs, SHOs and all personnel who would perform election duty were present on the occasion.

The CPO directed the officers and personnel to effectively implement the Election Code of Conduct and all the rules.

Ahsan Younis on the occasion said that the election code of conduct would be implemented in letter and spirit at all cost, adding, no one would be allowed to display weapons.

All-out efforts would be made to ensure implementation of rules and regulations and code of conduct issued by the Election Commission, he added.

All available resources would be utilized to create a peaceful and conducive atmosphere for the elections, he said and added that senior police officers would monitor all election processes in their respective areas.

It is pertinent to mention here that the constituencies for Kashmiri refugees, who will elect 12 members of the Azad Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly (AJKLA) on July 25, are scattered far and wide across Pakistan.

No election has such geographically scattered constituencies. One constituency is spread over all the four provinces while another two are scattered in two different federating units.

Some other constituencies are located in a large number of districts of Pakistan, often far away from each other.

Since the entire polling staff, including the District Returning Officers (DROs) and ROs for the refugee seats belong to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), it is the ECP’s responsibility to ensure that the electoral exercise is fair, free and transparent.

ECP personnel working in the provincial headquarters and districts have been deputed to supervise the election for the refugee seats according to previous practice.

The Rawalpindi, Sialkot and Narowal districts have the largest concentration of the refugee voters as four seats will be contested in these areas.

The voters living in ward numbers 1 to 14 within the limits of Rawalpindi Municipal Corporation (RMC) as they existed in 1985; Rawalpindi Cantonment wards numbers 1 to 10; Rawalpindi district outside the limits of RMC; Islamabad Capital Territory and Attock district will cast their ballots for the LA-XLIV Kashmir Valley-V seat.