ISLAMABAD - Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa on Thursday directed that the Army shall assist Election Commission of Pakistan strictly within the bounds of given mandate and as per ECP Code of conduct.

According to ISPR, the COAS issued these directives during his visit to Army Elections Support Centre, Rawalpindi where he was given a detailed briefing about plan for provision of assistance to ECP for free, fair and transparent conduct of General Elections 2018.

The COAS said that working in synchronisation with other elements of security apparatus, all efforts be put in to ensure secure and safe environment enabling people of Pakistan to freely exercise their democratic right.

The Army will deploy more than 170,000 troops to secure polling stations inside and outside on July 25 to assist the Election Commission in order to ensure free, fair and transparent elections in the country.

Meanwhile, Inter-Services Public Relations DG Major General Asif Ghafoor Thursday rejected the notion that the security forces have any direct role in conduct of the July 25 elections.

Briefing the special session of the Senate Standing Committee on Interior, the ISPR DG said the army was only following the ECP’s code of conduct to provide foolproof security during the elections.

“There were some rumours that army personnel had been issued ‘different’ orders — this is completely baseless,” he said. Reiterating his earlier stance he made during a press conference held earlier this month, Asif Ghafoor said: “We do not have any link with the elections; we are only working on the election commission’s directives to improve the law and order situation. We do not have a direct role in polls.”

He added the armed forces had always lent support to civil institutions. The security situation is being improved in the entire country to hold elections, he added.

“As many 371,000 army troops will be deployed at the countrywide polling stations. The army is also performing its duty at the printing press and safe transportation of ballots papers and boxes”, he said. He added the army was not taking direct responsibility for the security of any politician. “The security of political candidates is the responsibility of the government of Pakistan and the ECP. We are assisting the election commission for security during polling and unfortunately, until the police’s abilities improve, we will also have to do police duty.”

Replying to a question of PML-N Senator Kalsoom Perveen that how many soldiers were being sent to Balochistan for election security, ISPR DG who attended the meeting as the representative of General Headquarters (GHQ) said the army had analysed every place with regard to security. “Leave the issue of planning on us as we know about the exact deployment,” he added. He said the army had made deployment according to the requirement in Balochistan and there was no issue in communication with other stakeholders.

To a question of Chairman Committee Senator Rehman Malik about coordination with Afghan government, the army representative said Pakistan had been assured of reciprocal support from the Afghan side on the security front and the neighbouring country had assured them about the closure of border during elections.

“When the elections took place in Afghanistan, we took extraordinary measures on this side of the border. This time, the Afghan president phoned Pakistan prime minister and the army chief to assure us of their cooperation,” said the ISPR DG.

ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob also briefed the meeting over the security arrangements on the polling day. He said 20,000 polling stations had been declared sensitive and a total of 800,000 security officials and 700,000 ECP staff will perform their duties. “Overall 0.16 million people would perform their duties,” he added. He said that CCTV would be installed at 18,000 polling stations. “Bearing in mind the events of 2013, the ECP took the decision to deploy army. We are grateful to the army. Their officers are also being trained. The army’s help was also obtained to keep a watch on ballot papers,” he maintained. 

Secretary ECP said that the commission had raised the matter of writing of letters to presiding officers by the army officers and the army has apologised to the commission over this. “We have made it clear that it is not appropriate,” he added. He said that army would work under presiding officers and added that it was for the first time that ballot papers with watermark would be used and were imported from the Europe which would ensure the transparency of the election. He said that the result management system and the transmission system had also been improved with special software with three ways mechanism for the results transmission. He said that around 200 foreign observers had reached Pakistan to monitor the electoral process and the Election Commission was fully cooperating and facilitating them.  He said that ECP staff was facing threats in some parts of the country.

Responding to a question about the allotment of jeep symbol to a number of electoral candidates, he said that it was the power of the returning officer to allot symbols out of the symbols list of the commission. He said that overseas Pakistan would not be able to cast their votes this time and no one had the authority to print ballot papers additionally.

The secretary said that there were threats from different factions of Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) to sabotage the election that was objected by MQM Senator Mohammad Ali Saif. “The secretary has declared MQM as the security threat so it should be banned as it is a registered political party,” the senator said and added that the secretary had made an effort to damage the MQM to which Yaqoob apologised.

The secretary ECP strongly reputed the notion that ECP was playing a biased role, saying such comments were hurtful as ECP was intended to conduct free, fair and transparent elections under Article 218 of the Constitution of Pakistan. He said that nation would be celebrating 25th July as Democracy Day.

National Coordinator NACTA Dr Suleman Khan briefed the committee about possible threats to various political parties and candidates during their election campaigns and on the polling day. He said NACTA had received 65 threat alerts for various politicians across the country from March 2018 and most of the threats alerts were from across the border. He said that there were threats about ANP but there was no threat alert about attack on Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) candidate Siraj Riasani in Mastung. He said that a list of politicians who were facing life threats would be furnished to the committee. “We are receiving threats from TTP, Daesh and LeJ,” he added. He said that the counter terrorism body had also received a threat alert from MQM-London.

The NACTA chief viewed that the new perception after the death of TTP chief Mulla Fazlullah that TTP had gone weaken was proving wrong especially when the elections were being held and the environment was highly charged and motivated. He said Noor Mehsud had taken over the TTP.

Rehman Malik said LeJ and TTP were emerging in a new shape of Daesh about which he had disclosed back in 2014 that Daesh existed in Pakistan but no action was taken then. He said till they did not smash the heads of TTP and LeJ, a peaceful Pakistan will remain just a dream. He asked the government to immediately ask the government of Afghanistan to hand over them Khalid Khurasani, the  chief of Daesh’s Pakistani chapter, TTP’s new chief Mufti Noor Wali and escaped suicide bomber Ikramullah who is most wanted in Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto’s martyrdom case as they all were hiding in Afghanistan. 

Malik further said that India was trying to create a wedge between the provinces by using terrorism as a tool in KP and Balochistan.

The Balochistan police chief briefed the committee about the deadliest terror attack in Mastung and informed that suicide bomber was recognized as Hafiz Nawaz hailing from Abbottabad and further investigation was underway. He said that the bomber reached Balochistan through Karachi. He first joined LeJ and then became associated with Daesh, he added. He said that facilitators of the attacker had been traced. “Mufti Haider and Hafiz Naeem are local commanders of Daesh and efforts are being made to arrest them,” he added. He said that Daesh had penetrated into Balochistan from Afghanistan where it had control over some areas.  He also informed that the local administration had no prior information about holding of corner meeting by the candidate of BAP in Mastung.

The additional inspector general of police KP briefed the committee about the blast in Peshawar on ANP candidate Haroon Bilour and said that local administration and police were not informed prior to the corner meeting of the party. The incident would have been averted if the administration was informed well before the meeting, he added. He said however a JIT was formed soon after the incident and facilitator is arrested from Hangu and further investigation is underway.

The Islamabad police chief told the meeting that capital police had received 68 threats, out of which some are common in nature and some are related to politicians, religious leaders and religious places. “We have received a specific threat about attack on Chairman PTI Imran Khan,” he added. He said that security of former prime minister Shahid Khaqan had been enhanced.

Chairman PEMRA Saleem Baig in his briefing to the committee said that PEMRA has taken measures to block the derogatory advertisements of political parties against opponents. He said that advertisements with derogatory remarks and foul language had been blocked. “We have instructed the parties not to run eight advertisements, four have been banned and we have instructed about four to be edited,” he said. We established the monitoring and evaluation cell for elections in PEMRA, he informed the committee.

At the end of the meeting, secretary interior informed the committee that regular meetings were being held with all stakeholders through video conferences about the security situation across the country.  He said that a control room at the Ministry of Interior was working round the clock to monitor the security situation for elections.

Though the lawmakers of PML-N and PPP in the Senate have raised their concerns that ECP and the caretaker government had failed to fulfil their constitutional duty in holding of free and fair general elections, the committee through a resolution appreciated “the work being carried out by the ECP to conduct fair, free and transparent Elections on time”. The resolution passed by the meeting appreciated “the assistance committed and is being given by the Pakistan Army under the command of COAS, General Qamar Javed Bajwa to the Election Commission of Pakistan and to the provincial governments to conduct secured and protected polls by providing best possible security cover to the voters, candidates, electoral staff and polling vicinities”.

However, PML-N Senator Saadia Abbasi said that ECP had failed to fulfil its responsibilities in the smooth conduct of elections and said only one political party was being targeted—a reference towards her own party. Her party colleague Senator Javed Abbasi also said that pre-poll rigging was going on in the country and only one party was being targeted and NAB cases were being opened against PML-N only. He alleged that intelligence agencies were harassing the candidates.

 

 

Army to assist ECP strictly for fair polls: COAS