Daily Times

Pakistan Army is not available for election duty. Due to the country’s deteriorating law and order situation, Pakistan’s security forces won’t be present for election duty in the country.

In this regard, the Ministry of Defence informed the Pakistani Election Commission that border security was of utmost importance to the military due to 2022 saw the second-highest increase in terrorism-related fatalities globally.

The federal defense ministry’s secretary and additional secretary, as well as representatives from Punjab, attended several meetings with the country’s electoral watchdog to talk about security for the general election in the most populous region.

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja, ECP secretary and other members attended the event. Officials exchanged views on the law and order situation and election-related security matters in the crucial meeting with Defence Secretary Lt-Gen (retd) Hamooduz Zaman Khan and Additional Defence Secretary Khurram Sarfaraz Khan.

The defence secretary briefed CEC and other ECP officials that the law and order situation and the border situation were the top responsibility of the Pakistan army. It further maintained that the current economic crisis also impacted forces.

According to the defence secretary, it would be up to the government to decide whether to deploy security personnel for supplemental tasks or to limit their use to perform their primary duties under the current circumstances.

The chief secretary and Punjab’s top cop recently informed the electoral watchdog that the provincial government would not be able to provide security for the local legislature election on April 30.