ISLAMABAD – Inter Service Public Relation (ISPR) Director General MajorGeneral Asif Ghafoor on Thursday rejected the notion that the securityforces have any direct role in general elections.

During the meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Interior, the ISPRdirector general clarified that the army personnel are only following theElection Commission of Pakistan’s instructions.

“There were some rumours that army personnel had been issued differentorders, this is completely baseless,” he said. “We do not have any linkwith the elections; we are only working on the election commission’sdirectives to improve the law and order situation. We do not have a directrole in polls.”

Asif ghafoor said that the Army will ensure security and safety of thestaff, polling stations, ballot boxes, transportation and people involvedin the electoral process but the sanctity of the elections wholly andsolely falls upon the election commission of Pakistan.

Major-General Ghafoor said that the armed forces are not directly involvedin conducting the election, adding that “We have to support the ECP in thetasks they have sought our help with.”

The meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Interior held for the securityplan and the managements of general election 2018. The representative ofGHQ the ISPR director general participated in the session.

The four provinces’ inspector general of police, the home secretaries,federal interior and defence secretaries, the ECP secretary, the PEMRAchairman including NECTA coordinator and the other important governmentofficials were also present in the meeting.