MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government on Monday replaced the deputy commissioner (DC) of the Haveli district and its superintendent of police (SP) on the instructions of the chief election commissioner (CEC), a day after clashes between PPP and PML-N activists left two dead and seven injured in the remote, hilly area.

DC Sardar Tahir Mehmood and SP Yasin Baig have been suspended and attached with the Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD), according to an official notification which also said that the DC has been replaced with Abdul Hameed Mughal and the SP with Musa Khan.

Speaking at a press conference, CEC Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal said he had taken the action after the loss of lives and had passed orders for the DC and SP to be suspended for irresponsibility and being unprofessional.

However, the CEC avoided commenting on the incident itself before the completion of a judicial inquiry.

The PPP and PML-N are accusing one another of instigating riots and violence in AJK in order to postpone elections scheduled for July 21.

At a press conference on Monday, PPP General Secretary Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that just after the incident on Haveli, AJK Prime Minister Abdul Majeed had written to the AJK chief secretary asking for a judicial commission to be formed which the chief secretary, who is a representative of the federal government, did not comply with.

Both parties are blaming the other for instigating violence in order to delay elections

Mr Ashraf claimed that the PPP candidate had already announced holding the event when PML-N’s Chaudhry Mohammad Aziz had decided to hold his event at the same place and time.

“The PPP candidate changed his venue but PML-N workers passed by it and fired into the air. During the clash, the property of PPP workers was burnt and five of the party’s workers are still missing while others were injured,” he said.

Mr Ashraf said that though an application was filed by PPP workers, an FIR could not be registered. He called for a judicial inquiry into the incident to confirm which party’s workers were killed and injured.

“Haveli has always been a PPP area which is why the PML-N decided to create a disturbance there and postpone elections.

On the other hand, talking to media persons in Islamabad on Sunday, Federal Information Minister Pervez Rasheed had said it was the CEC’s responsibility to ensure an environment in which elections could be held in a peaceful manner and without interference from the local administration.

TV footage showed him saying: “Two of our workers have been martyred and the CEC will have to account for their lives”.

When asked about this, CEC Mughal said on Monday that as it was an impartial, independent institution which was assigned constitutional obligations, the elections commission gave equal importance to all parties.

“I have been sworn in as chief justice and as chief election commissioner. The election commission is focused on its constitutional functions in an impartial manner instead of becoming a B-team of an individual or organisation,” he said.

Detailing the arrangements for ensuring free and fair elections in a peaceful environment, Mr Mughal said the electoral process has been initiated with assistance from the armed forces.

He said four policemen and two army personnel will be deployed inside each normal polling station and an army official and other security staff will be monitoring the situation from outside.

The number of army personnel and policemen will be increased to four at sensitive polling stations, he added.

The CEC said he had given instructions that protocol vehicles be withdrawn from those cabinet members, advisers, and other individuals who were using them while campaigning. He said federal ministers will also not be allowed to campaign on official vehicles.

Mr Mughal said no candidate will be allowed to display portraits of army personnel on their banners, posters and pamphlets because doing so undermined the impartiality of the armed forces and violates the code of conduct as well.

All such posters and banners will be removed or the candidate concerned will be disqualified, he said.

Earlier, a high level meeting was told that 17,000 army personnel, 4,000 officials from the Frontier Constabulary and just as many from the Punjab Constabulary, 2,000 Khyber Pakhtunkhwa policemen and 5,200 AJK policemen will be deployed to ensure law and order and transparency during elections.

The powers of a magistrate will be vested in the presiding officers and commissioned and junior commissioned army officers.

The meeting was told that the building of the Printing Corporation of Pakistan in Islamabad and the AJK Election Commission’s office in Rawalpindi were to be protected by the army and police from July 5 onwards.

Some 7,000 transparent ballot boxes and requisite polling material were dispatched to the concerned returning officers for 4,459 polling stations within AJK territory while ballot boxes and polling material for the 1,087 polling stations in Pakistan is being transported.

All returning officers from AJK have been summoned to the Printing Corporation of Pakistan’s building on July 14 and 15 to receive ballot papers while ballot papers for the 12 constituencies in Pakistan will be dispatched under the protection of the army and police.

Helicopters will be used to dispatch ballot papers to the remote polling stations in four of these constituencies.

In an unrelated incident, Assistant Commissioner (AC) Dhirkot Syed Moazzam Ali Gillani was also transferred due to the “dereliction of duty”.

Meanwhile, talking to media persons in his chamber, opposition leader in the National Assembly, Syed Khurshid Shah also alleged that the federal government was disturbing the peaceful environment in Kashmir.

Published in Dawn, July 12th, 2016