ISLAMABAD, 18 August 2005 — Pakistan’s Election Commission has finalized arrangements for the first phase of municipal elections today. In the first phase polling will be held in 54 districts which include 11 districts of Sindh province, 17 districts of Punjab, 12 districts of NWFP and 14 districts of Balochistan. The polling will start at 8: a.m. and end 5 p.m.
According to the chief election commissioner 1,28,000 polling booths have established in 32, 000 polling stations around the country. A total of 2,18,000 candidates are contesting two phases of the local councils elections including 55,000 women. The campaign for the elections ended Tuesday midnight as per election commission directives.
Tens of thousands of security personnel have been deployed to ensure peace during the local bodies elections to choose new councilors and mayors in various parts of the country, officials said yesterday.
Karachi police have made foolproof security arrangements throughout the metropolis to ensure law and order by deploying over 45,000 police and Rangers personnel.
“As many as 35,000 policemen, 10,500 paramilitary troops and hundreds of troops will be guarding polling stations and patrolling today in Karachi, said Asad Jehangir, police chief in the southern Sindh province of which Karachi is the capital.
Dozens of people were killed or wounded during the last municipal elections in the southern port city.
Large numbers of police and troops were also being deployed in eastern, northwestern and southwestern Pakistan to maintain law and order during and in the immediate aftermath of the polls, police said.
“We are on maximum alert, but we hope that candidates and their supporters will cooperate with us and there will be no violence,” said Jehangir.
Saeed Khan, police chief in northwestern city of Peshawar and Tariq Saleem Dogar, a senior police official in the eastern city of Lahore also said that authorities have finalized security arrangements. Chaudhry Yaqub, police chief in southwestern Balochistan province, said he hoped the elections there would be held in a peaceful atmosphere.
Police were also alert in Rawalpindi, a city near Islamabad, to avoid violence during the municipal elections, said Mohammed Asghar, a police official.
Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in its war on terror and today’s elections are being held amid a crackdown on outlawed militant groups launched last month which has netted hundreds of terror suspects.
On Tuesday a court rejected the appeals of 11 madarsa graduates seeking to overturn a ruling banning them from standing in the elections because they had not studied English, Pakistan Studies and the country’s dominant language, Urdu.
The ruling upheld a law that has not been strictly enforced in the past for fear of angering students and clerics of Islamic schools, or madrasas, recently accused of fostering militancy.
The decision, which will likely affect scores of political candidates, came days after another judge allowed a religious school graduate to run in the elections, raising concerns that supporters of outlawed militant groups could become councilors and mayors.
Pakistan government has said no member of the outlawed groups will be allowed to stand in the municipal polls.
