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No direct role of army in upcoming election 2018: ISPR DG

No direct role of army in upcoming election 2018: ISPR DG
July 19, 2018
ISLAMABAD (92 News) – Inter Service Public Relation (ISPR) Director General Major General Asif Ghafoor on Thursday rejected the notion that the security forces have any direct role in general elections. During the meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Interior, the ISPR director general clarified that the army personnel are only following the Election Commission of Pakistan’s instructions. “There were some rumours that army personnel had been issued different orders, this is completely baseless,” he 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.” Asif ghafoor said that the Army will ensure security and safety of the staff, polling stations, ballot boxes, transportation and people involved in the electoral process but the sanctity of the elections wholly and solely falls upon the election commission of Pakistan. Major-General Ghafoor said that the armed forces are not directly involved in conducting the election, adding that “We have to support the ECP in the tasks they have sought our help with." The meeting of Senate Standing Committee on Interior held for the security plan and the managements of general election 2018. The representative of GHQ 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 PEMRA chairman including NECTA coordinator and the other important government officials were also present in the meeting. – Free & fair elections responsibility of ECP – Secretary Election Commission Babar Yaqoob says only the Election Commission is responsible for holding free and fair elections and all the other institutions are assisting it. He was briefing Senate Standing Committee on Interior about election preparations in Islamabad on Thursday. Rehman Malik chaired the meeting. He said the army personnel will assist ECP under law, and they will work under presiding officers. He said for the first time a code of conduct for security personnel was prepared. The Secretary Election Commission said 450,000 police and 300,000 army troops will be deployed no the polling day. As many as 750,000 polling staff will perform duty. He said observers, most of them from EU and Commonwealth, will monitor transparency in elections.