ISLAMABAD: In a briefing to the Senate Standing Committee on Interior onMonday, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Babar Yaqoob saidthat some international forces could derail and sabotage the upcomingelections.
“We think that an effort will be made at the international level tosabotage the elections but it would not be appropriate to share detailshere. We are ready to inform you in an in-camera meeting,” the secretaryinformed the Senate committee.
The secretary said that the ECP was committed to holding the electionswithin sixty days, and compared the present security paradigm to whatprevailed before the 2013 elections.
“During the 2013 elections, there were so many security issues, not only inQuetta, where a district election commissioner died in a bomb blast, butthere were also grenade attacks at five places in Balochistan. Securityissues had also arisen in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Karachi. Similar incidentscould happen again and we fear that the training centres of returningofficers could be attacked, so we took the chief secretaries of allprovinces on board to ensure security. Training of assistant presidingofficers is currently under way.”
He also informed the committee that the ECP had planned to install camerasat 20,000 of the 85,000 polling stations in the country, but that numberneeded to be increased to 60,000.
Mr Yaqoob also explained in response to a question that it would not bepractical to deploy armed forces personnel at polling stations.
“We have talked to the army but we should understand that it won’t bepossible for them to withdraw such a large number of personnel from theeastern and western borders. I think army officials will only be deputed atsensitive polling stations. On the other hand, as many as 350,000 policeofficials will be required if five officials are to be deputed at eachpolling station.”