PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government said on Tuesday that it was facing shortage of over 25,000 security personnel for the upcoming general elections.

A statement issued here said that KP Caretaker Chief Minister retired justice Syed Arshad Hussain Shah chaired a meeting regarding preparations for polls.

Caretaker provincial ministers Dr Aamir Abdullah and Barrister Feroz Jamal Shah Kakakhel,Chief Secretary Nadeem Aslam Chaudhry, Inspector General Police Akhtar Hayat Khan Gandapur, Additional Chief Secretary Home Mohammad Abid Majeed and other officials attended the meeting.

The meeting was informed that the provincial government would require a total of 115,430 security personnel for holding general elections, whereas only 89,959 police personnel were currently available and thus the government was faced with the shortfall of 25,471 personnel.

CM chairs meeting on polls preparation; interior ministry approached for provision of additional personnel

However, the meeting was informed that the federal ministry of interior had been approached for the provision of additional four wings of Frontier Corps and 165 platoons of Frontier Constabulary as well.

Moreover, it was informed that on the special directives of the caretaker chief minister, 26,213 additional security personnel had been arranged so far from different provincial departments.

Moreover, the authorities said that a total of 5,552 CCTV cameras were available for installation at polling stations, whereas Rs986 million had been released for providing additional 11,668 CCTV cameras for this purpose. Similarly, ramps for differently-abled people are available at 11,689 polling stations, whereas 1,536 more ramps are under construction.

The meeting was informed that a total of 15,737 polling stations would be established across the province out of which 4,812 polling stations had been declared most sensitive, 6,581 sensitive and 4,344 polling stations normal, adding that 1,919 polling stations would be established in the snow-bound areas of the province. The authorities said that the total number of registered voters in the province was 21,692,381.

About the security arrangements for holding general elections in the province, it was informed that 11 security personnel would be deployed at each most sensitive polling station in the southern beltand merged districts of the province, whereas seven security personnel would be deployed at each most sensitive polling station in the rest of the districts.

Similarly, seven security personnel would be deployed at each of the sensitive polling stations and four security personnel at each of the normal polling stations in the merged and southern districts. Whereas, in the rest of the districts, five security personnel at each sensitive and four at each normal polling station would be deployed.

In order to monitor the law and order during the elections, a command and control centre has been established at the home department, whereas, district wise contingency plan has been prepared by the police department. Similarly, rescue emergency plans and health emergency plans have also been prepared for the upcoming polls.

They were also informed that the relevant deputy commissioners had chalked out their formal plans for polling in the snow-bound areas of the province; required machinery and manpower would be available for clearance of snow from the roads during the elections.

Similarly, a comprehensive mechanism has been devised for coordination amongst all the stakeholders in order to ensure fair and peaceful holding of general elections.

Addressing the participants on the occasion, the chief minister said that the provincial government will go all-out for holding general elections in a peaceful, fair and transparent manner.

He directed all the Divisional Commissioners, RPOs, Deputy Commissioners and DPOs to ensure implementation of the plans and decisions of the provincial government in letter and spirit for this purpose.

He made it clear that instructions and code of conduct issued by Election Commission for holding general elections must be implemented at all levels.

All the available machinery and resources of the provincial government would be utilised, adding that the divisional and district administrations would have to play their respective role in an effective manner for holding free, fair and peaceful general elections in the province. The provincial government would extend its all-out support for this purpose, he concluded.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2024