LAHORE: The Punjab Police department is facing a severe shortage of the force to deploy 220,000 police personnel for the election duty as proposed by the high-ups.

An official told Dawn the police, in consultation with the other law enforcement agencies and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), declared 5,600 polling stations highly sensitive and 14,000 sensitive out of the total 50,000 stations being established across the province for the election. He said the Central Police Office (CPO) was struggling to meet the shortage of the force required for the election duty.

The official said the army troops would also be deployed at all the sensitive polling stations to act as quick response force or as third-tier responders for any law and order situation in line with the directions of the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The final decision in this regard would be made by the Punjab Home Department in consultation with the ECP, he said and added that the Central Police Office (CPO) was struggling hard to meet the growing shortage of the force required for election duty.

A meeting, chaired by Inspector General of Police (IGP) Dr Usman Anwar, has approved the withdrawal of 23,000 police personnel from various units to meet the shortage. In this regard, Assistant Inspector General Operations Asad Ijaz Malhi on the behalf of the IG police intimated to the heads of various police units concerned through a letter issued here the other day.“It is apprised that the general elections will be held on Feb 8 and the Punjab police department has to muster up 130,000 uniformed police personnel for security duty during election,” reads the notification of the Central Police Office (CPO).

It stated the available resources had meticulously been calculated and with the approval of the competent authority 23,000 police personnel would be withdrawn from the respective units for their deployment for the election in the nearest districts.

According to the notification, 9,000 policemen shall be withdrawn from Punjab Highways Patrol, 6,000 from Punjab Constabulary, 4,000 from traffic police, 3,000 from the Special Protection Units and 1,000 police personnel shall be withdrawn from the police training institutes.

Addressed to the heads of all the police units concerned, the notification reads: “It is therefore requested that the aforementioned strength shall be made available as and when election duty is likely to be started”.

The CPO also directed heads of the units concerned to communicate to the competent authority about the region and district-wise availability of the force as discussed in the official notification/letter.

The official said the senior police officers at the CPO were discussing various other options to complete the 220,000 number of police force to cover election duties in Punjab as was proposed in the meeting.

Published in Dawn, January 19th, 2024