• PML-N, PPP reject idea
• 1,559 candidates to contest elections in 219 wards of 42 cantonment boards

ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) on Thursday asked the Election Commi­ssion of Pakistan (ECP) to deploy army troops inside and outside the polling stations for maintaining “law and order” and “ensuring transparency” in the Sept 12 elections of the 42 cantonment boards across the country.

The demand for army dep­loyment was made by PTI chief organiser Senator Saif­ullah Khan Nyazee thro­ugh a letter to Chief Ele­ction Com­m­issioner (CEC) Sikan­dar Sultan Raja, two days after opposition Pakistan Mus­lim League-Nawaz (PML-N) threatened to lau­nch an agitation “if the government attempts to rig the poll”.

Through the letter, Mr Nyazee informed the CEC that most of the PTI chapters had reported to him about “potentially explosive environment” that had built around the election campaigns for local government elections of the cantonment boards.

“The past record of such elections without the security provided by the armed forces of Pakistan is not reassuring either, especially in large metropolitan cities like Karachi and Lahore,” he writes in the letter, a copy of which was released to the media by the PTI.

“In the absence of electronic voting machines (EVMs), avenues are open for electoral fraud and coercive methods adopted by the local political forces, ranging from fake ballots to the wrong compilation of results,” writes the PTI chief organiser.

Therefore, he says, in the interest of free and fair elections, “it is our considered opinion that army shall be requested to assist in maintaining law and order inside and outside of the polling stations”.

He is of the view that the current regional geopolitical circumstances have necessitated it even more to keep “our democracy clear of any stains of rigging and violence”.

The opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), while opposing the PTI’s request for the army deployment, said the experience of 2018 general elections was “one time too many”.

“It’s not the army’s role nor is it trained to conduct polls,” said PPP secretary general Farhatullah Babar, when contacted to seek his comments on the development.

Mr Babar said the laws were in place and civilian structures existed to conduct free and fair polls. He said the government taking “thoughtless decisions” unilaterally would only place a huge question mark over the polls.

When contacted, PML-N vice president Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the government wanted to make the elections controversial. He said the ruling party did not know the constitution and the laws as no political party could make a request for army deployment. He said only the ECP could make such a request to the federal government which then sought the help of the army to come for the civilian aid. As far as the deployment inside the polling stations was concerned, he said, such a request could only be made by the presiding officers concerned.

The PML-N had already raised a written objection to the election plan.

Speaking at a news conference in Lahore, PML-N leaders Khawaja Saad Rafique and former National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq had alleged that the government on the directive of Prime Minister Imran Khan had planned rigging the cantonment board polls in different cities in Punjab and assigned the task to Governor Chaudhry Sarwar.

Mr Rafique alleged the premier had visited the Governor House recently and met two independent candidates of Walton Cantonment Board after which they joined the PTI.

“We have issued a picture of this meeting on social media. The Lahore police and district administration have been directed to pick up PML-N activists a day or two before the polls. A PTI senator is distributing money [among the candidates] in the Walton Cantonment,” Mr Rafique had said while urging the ECP to take notice.

“We will not allow pre-poll, or post-poll rigging. If the government does so, we will take to the streets,” he had warned and said there should be no misuse of state institutions.

Ayaz Sadiq had said the PML-N workers were ready to agitate if rigging was committed. He claimed the PML-N was in a position to win the cantonment board polls comprehensively, demanding that the ECP should take action against those violating the code of conduct for the polls.

On the other hand, speaking at a news conference in Islamabad, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan had said that the opposition was levelling the allegations of rigging in the cantonment boards polls seeing its defeat like it did in the recently-held elections in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir.

The September 12 cantonment board elections will be the first grassroots level electoral contest between the country’s arch rival political parties after the 2018 general elections. The elections have been pending since 2019 due to Covid-19 pandemic and re-demarcation of wards in the cantonments.

Interestingly, no political party has made any seat adjustment with another or entered into any alliance for the polls.

The Awami National Party (ANP) had also accused the PTI of violating the code of conduct for the elections and asked the government to try EVMs in the elections for cantonment boards to remove reservations of the political parties about their efficacy.

Addressing a news conference at the Peshawar Press Club on Wednesday, ANP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa spokesperson Samar Haroon Bilour had said the opposition parties had rejected the government’s plan to use EVMs in the next general elections, insisting it was a new way to rig the polls.

Samar Bilour, who is also a member of the provincial assembly, alleged that the PTI lawmakers were openly running campaigns for the party’s candidates and announcing development schemes to attract voters.

A total of 2,197,441 voters (1,154,551 men and 1,043,190 women) will use their right of vote in the already delayed elections of the cantonment boards on September 12, for which the ECP has sought the assistance of police and Rangers. The ECP has finalised the plan for the voting for which it will set up 5,080 polling booths in 1,644 polling stations. The ECP has also approved the plan to install CCTV cameras outside sensitive polling stations.

A total of 1,559 candidates are contesting the polls to become general members in 219 wards of 42 cantonment boards of the country. There are 918 candidates in 119 wards of 20 cantonment boards in Punjab; 422 in 54 wards of eight cantonment boards in Sindh; 173 candidates in 37 wards of 11 cantonment boards in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 46 candidates are in the field in nine wards of three cantonment boards in Balochistan.

The cantonment boards where elections are being held are Rawalpindi, Chaklala, Wah, Taxila, Murree, Attock, Sanjwal, Kamra, Jhelum, Mangla, Sargodha, Shorkot, Gujranwala, Kharian, Sialkot, Lahore, Walton, Okara, Multan and Bahawalpur (Punjab); Hyderabad, Karachi, Clifton, Malir, Faisal, Korangi, Manora and Pano Aqil (Sindh); Peshawar, Cherat, Risalpur, Nowshera, Mardan, Kohat, Bannu, Dera Ismail Khan, Abbottabad, Murree Galyat and Havelian (KP); and Quetta, Zhob and Loralai (Balochistan).

Published in Dawn, September 3rd, 2021