Islamabad, July 19 (TNS): 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.
The Secretary Election Commission informed the meeting that there will be 85,307 polling stations across the country, and all of them will be available on Google Map.
He said over twenty thousand polling stations have been declared sensitive, and CCTV cameras will be installed inside and outside of all the sensitive polling stations.
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 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 said for the first time watermarked ballot papers imported from Europe will be used in the elections.
He informed the committee that Returning Officers send results to the Election Commission through special software.
He said observers, most of them from EU and Commonwealth, will monitor transparency in elections.
Meanwhile, briefing the Senate Committee on Interior, National Coordinator NACTA Dr. Suleman Khan said sixty five security alerts had been received so far and they were issued to all political parties.
He said there are threats from banned organizations including Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jamaat-ul-Ahrar. He said a threat was also received from MQM London.
