Daily Times

LAHORE: In a letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) on Friday demanded to replace Punjab Governor and all the Assistant Returning Officers (AROs) for ensuring free, fair and transparent polls.

The letter was written and dispatched to the ECP by the PPP Central Punjab chapter General Secretary Manzoor Ahmad on the direction of party’s central leadership in which he put four main demands including denying to accept the elections with the existing AROs, who mostly belong to education department.

He said that he would like to make following four recommendations regarding the conduct of scheduled general elections on July 25 including replacement of the Punjab Governor with a neutral and non-partisan appointment, appointment of civil judges as AROs, appointment of federal department officers as Presiding Officers and bureaucratic changes from Chief Secretary to Patwaris and IG Police to SHOs in local police stations for ensuring free and fair elections.

PPP Central Punjab Secretary, while addressing the Chief Election Commission in his letter reference, expressed concerns of manipulated results in favour of Nawaz League by engaged officers for conducting elections in the past.

The desired changes should be applied and reciprocated in both provincial and federal setup, it was further requested.

The PPP Central Punjab General Secretary Chaudhry Manzoor also expressed hope in his letter that he believes his recommendations would be considered seriously and in good faith to make sure the upcoming announced general elections are free, fair and transparent according to the real spirit of democracy.