ISLAMABAD: With the February 8 elections approaching, the Ministry of Interior on Tuesday shared its summary regarding the deployment of armed forces during the upcoming polls.
The development comes after the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) sought to deploy 277,000 army personnel across the country to ensure security and law and order situation across the country, whose 126 million voters will choose their representatives next month.
With 2023 culminating as one of the worst since 2015 in terms of terror-related incidents, the upcoming polls in the country are surrounded by doubts about the safety and security of candidates and voters alike.
Despite several incidents of violence and attacks on candidates, political parties continue their electoral efforts to woo voters, however, several politicians have expressed concern over the law and order situation – some have even moved the Senate to seek a postponement of the vote in this regard.
Earlier this month, Kaleemullah Khan, an independent candidate who was trying to contest the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa PK-104 assembly elections, was shot dead in North Waziristan.
Hours later, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Shah Khalid was also killed in Swabia after unidentified motorcycle-borne assailants opened fire on his car.
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Additionally, several other leaders including Aslam Buledi of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Mohsin Dawar of the National Democratic Movement (NDM) and Lala Abdul Rasheed of the National Party and Senator Kohda Akram Dashti have also been targeted in the ongoing month .
Due to the precarious situation, caretaker prime minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has formed a high-level committee to oversee election security.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Army has also vowed to provide necessary military assistance for the upcoming general elections.
It is pertinent to mention that Pakistan Army soldiers along with Rangers and Frontier Constabulary (FC) personnel will be on election duty after the Home Ministry’s summary is approved by the Interim Federal Cabinet.
The authorities had earlier decided to ask the army for help in the searches due to an acute shortage of security personnel.
Punjab, the country’s electoral battleground, is facing a shortage of 92,000 security personnel at polling stations.
Meanwhile, the Karachi police is facing a shortage of 14,300 security personnel, including women police.
