*RAWALPINDI: The Pakistan army on Wednesday expressed the resolve ofextending “mandated assistance” to the Election Commission of Pakistan(ECP) for the conduct of free, fair and transparent elections.*
The 211th Corps Commanders’ Conference was held with Chief of Army StaffGen Qamar Jawed Bajwa in the chair at General Headquarters, Rawalpindi,according to a statement issued by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR)on official Twitter account.
The moot reviewed geo-strategic environment and recent security and otherrelated developments in the region and resolved, “mandated assistance toECP will be provided for free, fair & transparent conduct of GE-18.”
Gen Bajwa directed the military to perform election duties with utmostresponsibility and without losing any focus on defence and internalsecurity challenges at hand.
The ECP had earlier requested the Ministry of Defence to approve deploymentof at least 350,000 armed forces personnel in the upcoming generalelections scheduled on July 25.
The ECP, in this regard sent a summary to the minister and is awaitingreply. The core purpose of the deployment of military will be maintaininglaw and order during the elections countrywide.
In the meeting on May 28, the ECP officials had finalised a security planfor the upcoming general elections.
The ECP had already decided to seek assistance of the Pakistan Army andRangers to ensure the smooth conduct of polls at sensitive polling stations.
Besides, police personnel will also be deployed inside and outside pollingstations to ensure implementation of the ECP’s code of conduct.
In the previous meeting, the chief secretaries of all four provinces wereasked to give a detailed briefing on the situation of security in theirrespective provinces, according to sources privy to the meeting.
The chief secretaries assured the electoral body of extending everypossible cooperation and assistance in this regard.
Last month, the ECP had reviewed progress over procurement of securitycameras for installation and provision of missing facilities at pollingstations and availability of sufficient polling staff.