Islamabad - Interior Minister Malik Muhammad Habib Khan Tuesday said that interior ministry had credible intelligence reports about some plans devised by militants from Afghanistan side to target main political leadership and sensitive army installations to sabotage the election process.
“However, the law enforcement agencies have countered these major terrorist threats,” he said during his informal talk to a select group of journalists during a dinner hosted by him at a local hotel. He also said that threat assessment reports of the ministry for the next four or five days were satisfactory and elections would be held in a peaceful atmosphere.
Earlier, the minister addressing the dinner arranged for journalists said the primary function of maintaining law and order had been completely delegated to the provinces and the ministry of interior, after the 18th Amendment, had a coordinating role with a duty to intervene in provinces under specific circumstances.
The minister said, “We stand united to ensure our fundamental right to elect our own representatives. We will never be denied by the actions of non-state actors.” He said that free and fair elections would be held by providing security in consultation with Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and provincial governments so that no untoward incident would take place and the democratic process and smooth transfer of power to the elected representatives of the people completed. The minister told the participants that they were functioning within the guidelines provided by the ECP and the Constitution of Pakistan for elections. “We are in continuous touch with the political parties and regularly improving the security arrangements,” he added.
He said that he personally visited all four provincial capitals to interact with stakeholders and representatives of political parties and held meetings to review contingency and deployment plans. “I also met the commanders of civil armed forces (CAF) and reviewed security arrangements for the borders against infiltration of miscreants. I found them fully alert and in high morale,” he said.
Malik Habib informed that under the instructions of the Chief of Army Staff and within the constitution, the military was providing them a complete security umbrella and would act as quick response force in aid to civil administration. The minister concluded by appealing to the countrymen to come out and vote. “Who you vote for is your business; but do vote. By turning out to vote in large numbers you would have shown the importance you attach to democracy that all of us have struggled so hard to achieve in Pakistan,” he said.
At the same time, he said the Armed Forces and police had worked tirelessly day and night to ensure that the voting would be peaceful and would finally demonstrate to the enemies of the nation that they had failed in scaring them off. They would tell them that Pakistan would never bow down to their threats or be defeated from the right path, come what may.