Army and FC Likely to Fill In for Police in KP Elections Due to Shortage of Officers

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) held an important meeting on Tuesday, attended by the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Sikandar Sultan Raja, members of the ECP, the Secretary ECP, the Chief Secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), and senior officers of the ECP.

The meeting was called to receive a security briefing from the Chief Secretary and the Inspector General of Police (IG) KP regarding arrangements for the upcoming general elections of the Provincial Assembly and by-elections of the National Assembly in the province.

In his opening remarks, the CEC emphasized the importance of appointing impartial officers during the elections for the sake of transparency. The Chief Secretary assured that the provincial government would allocate a larger budget for the elections and would appoint impartial officers in all the districts before the elections.

However, the IG highlighted a major challenge during the briefing, stating that the province is facing a shortage of 57,000 police officers to conduct the elections.

He added that even if police officers are called in from Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, the shortage could not be met and the help of the Army and Frontier Corps would be required.

The IG also warned that the possibility of terrorist acts during the elections cannot be ruled out, and it cannot be said that the upcoming elections will be completely peaceful.

The CEC instructed the IG to work on the appointment of the Army and Frontier Corps for the elections and to inform the ECP so that relevant institutions could be contacted in time.

He also mentioned that the ECP is in touch with the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Defense for the deployment of the Army and Frontier Corps.

The meeting ended with the Election Commission and attendees offering Fatiha for the martyrs of the Police Lines suicide blast.



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