PESHAWAR: As Khyber Pakhtunkhwa goes to the polls today (Thursday) following a surge in terrorist attacks, over 100,000 personnel of law-enforcement agencies have been deployed at polling stations across the province, reveal official documents.

Election will be held for 44 national and 113 provincial assembly seats in KP as polling has been put off by the Election Commission of Pakistan in the National Assembly constituency of NA-8 and provincial assembly constituencies of PK-22 Bajaur and PK-91 Kohat following the death of candidates.

There are 713 candidates for National Assembly and 1,814 for provincial assembly seats with the registered voters totalling 20.1 million, including over 11.938 million men and over 0.998 million women, according to the documents.

On Dec 23, officials briefed the provincial caretaker cabinet about the Feb 8 general elections, especially the law and order situation, and said 72 per cent of the polling stations in the province were located in “security-sensitive” areas.

Polling will take place for 44 NA, 113 PA seats today

They said the province had 15,697 polling stations and 4,823 of them were for men and 4,274 for women, while there are 6,600 combined polling stations.

The officials said 4,134 polling stations were located in the “most sensitive” areas and 5,463 in “sensitive” areas.

Official documents reveal that 91,033 police personnel, 18,816 civil armed forces and 982 members of the armed forces’ quick response team have been deployed in the province for security-related duties on the election day, while 1,077 personnel of the police’s quick response force will also perform those duties.

The interior ministry has already approved the deployment of 6,000 personnel of the Frontier Constabulary for election duty, according to documents.

Nine personnel of law-enforcement agencies have been deployed at each of the polling stations in the “most sensitive” areas in the province’s central and northern districts and 11 at each of such polling stations in southern and tribal districts, show the documents.

The law-enforcement personnel deployed at each of “sensitive” polling stations in central and northern districts total six and seven at each of such polling stations in southern and tribal districts, according to the documents. Four law-enforcers each will guard each of other polling stations in central, northern, southern and tribal districts.

Another document of the home department reveals that 1,495 polling stations are located in the province’s snowbound areas and 590 tractors, 194 dozers, 193 excavators, 175 recovery vehicles and 18 other machinery have been sent there for clearing snow.

Meanwhile, the home and tribal affairs department has established the “central control room” on its main premises for monitoring elections, officials said.

They said the central control room would remain in contact with the district control rooms.

The officials said a “special application” would monitor district control rooms and all returning officers were connected with it.

They added that the application was also connected with an offline system to continue functioning in case of the suspension of the internet service.

The officials said the quick response force would be called in case of the temporarily suspension of the polling process.

Meanwhile, the ECP officials informed Dawn that 40.4 million ballot papers had been printed for elections and that the presiding officers would release poll results on Form 45.

Meanwhile, an official of Lower Dir district administration told reporters in Timergara that 4,274 police officials along with 500 personnel of the Dir Levies would perform security duties on the election day.

He said that a district monitoring control room had been set up at the deputy commissioner office that would remain functional all through the last hour of Feb 9.

The official said similar control rooms had been put up in the offices of all seven returning officers of the district.

Deputy commissioner Wasil Khan visited the Technical College Khaima and examined the packing and dispatching of election materials to polling stations.

Meanwhile, over 14,000 policemen have been deployed to guard polling stations and polling personnel In Lakki Marwat district.

Members of the polling staff along with election material reached their respective polling stations in Bannu division on Wednesday.

A local police official told Dawn that over 14,112 police personnel would perform security duty at 1,196 polling stations, including 307 “most sensitive” ones.

He said close circuit television cameras were installed at all polling stations, including 220 sensitive and 669 others.

In Bajaur tribal district, most of the polling stations have been declared highly sensitive and sensitive by authorities.

According to a list issued by ECP’s local office, a total of 275 polling stations have been set up in the district’s all three provincial assembly constituencies — PK-19, PK-20 and PK-21.

Authorities have declared 114 polling stations “sensitive” and 63 “highly sensitive.”

In PK-19 Bajaur 1 constituency, polling stations total 96. Of them, five are for men and four for women, and 87 are combined.

PK-19 has 96 polling stations, including 51 most sensitive and 44 sensitive ones.

There are 84 polling stations in PK-20 Bajaur 2. Sensitive polling stations total 40 and the most sensitive ones nine.

In PK-21 Bajaur 3, 95 polling stations have been established. Of them, 30 are sensitive and three highly sensitive.

The three provincial assembly constituencies have 488,873 registered voters, including 266,229 men and 222,644 women. There are a total of 36 election candidates.

According to the ECP’s local office, 1,982 officials will perform election duty in these constituencies.

Meanwhile, the police have claimed that strict security arrangements have been made to ensure free, fair and peaceful elections in the tribal district.

Around 2,600 police personnel have been deployed at polling stations of the district’s constituencies, according to the district police officer’s office.

Published in Dawn, February 8th, 2024