Daily Times

Inspector General of Police (IGP) Punjab Inam Ghani on Wednesday said that transparent and peaceful conduct of by-elections of National and Provincial Assemblies in Sialkot and Khushab is an important national responsibility, for which supervisory officers of Punjab Police should not spare any effort in security measures as per instructions issued by Election Commission.

The police chief expressed these views while presiding over a video link meeting at the Central Police Office to review the security arrangements for the by-elections in NA-75 Daska and PP-84 Khushab constituencies of National and Provincial Assemblies.

The meeting was attended by Additional IG Logistics Ali Amir Malik, DIG Establishment II-Maqsood Al-Hassan, DIG Operations Sohail Sukhera and DIG R&D Shahid Javed among other officers.

During the meeting, the IGP directed that all available resources should be utilized for the best security of the polling staff deployed in NA-75 Daska and PP-84 Khushab by-elections and the command officers themselves should go out in the field to ensure security arrangements.

He further said that in addition to additional police personnel at sensitive polling stations, the services of Rangers should also be utilized as and when required while deployment of ladies police for security at women polling stations and booths should be ensured in all cases.

Additional personnel should be deployed for the delivery of election materials including ballot boxes after the completion of polling to ensure safe transfer of election materials, he said stressing that no candidate or his supporters should be allowed to violate the code of conduct issued by the Election Commission. He warned that strict legal action should be taken against those responsible for violating the Election Code of Conduct without any discrimination.

He urged that the regional police officers of Gujranwala and Sargodha and district police officers of Sialkot and Khushab should be provided with all the necessary equipment including additional wireless sets as soon as possible so that it could be utilized on election day.

He also ordered the officers on election duty to ensure the implementation of Corona SOPs and all officers and personnel should take precautionary measures including the use of face masks and hand sanitizers.

During the meeting RPO Sargodha and Gujranwala while DPO Khushab and Sialkot while briefing about the security plan for the by-elections said that the security plan has been prepared as per the instructions of the Election Commission and no compromise has been reached on violation of election code of conduct.

While instructing the officers, the IG Punjab also added that that the supervisory officers must brief all the personnel on duty before the commencement of polling about the sensitivity of the duty so that they can perform their duties efficiently and play their effective role for holding peaceful elections.