The federal government on Friday authorized the deployment of the army and civilian armed forces for the upcoming by-elections on November 23.
By-elections will be held in NA-18 (Haripur), NA-96 (Faisalabad-II), NA-104 (Faisalabad-X), NA-143 (Sahiwal-III), NA-185 (Dera Ghazi Khan-II), NA-129 (Lahore-XIII), PP-73 (Sargodha-III), PP-98 (Faisalabad-I), PP-115. (Faisalabad-XVIII), PP-116 (Faisalabad-XIX), PP-203 (Sahiwal-VI), PP-269 (Muzaffargarh-II) and PP-87 (Mianwali-III) on Sunday.
The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) sent letters to the federal secretaries of defense and interior on Thursday, requesting them to deploy civilian armed forces to enable the peaceful conduct of elections and also take other appropriate measures to protect the lives of election officials, voters and the general public.
One order, available with Sunriseissued today by the Ministry of Home Affairs said that the government has authorized the deployment of “sufficient forces” of civil armed forces as second-level standby responders in quick reaction force (QRF) mode only and Pakistan Army as third-level responders in QRF mode under Articles 220 and 245 of the Constitution.
He added that troops were empowered to exercise powers under sections 4 and 5 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 from Saturday to Monday.
“The exact number of troops will be determined by the respective home departments and Election Commission of Pakistan in consultation with stakeholders on the basis of on-ground needs and assessments,” the order said.
Faisalabad DMO fines Rana Sanaullah, son-in-law
Separately, Faisalabad District Supervision Officer Muhammad Murtaza Malik fined Prime Minister’s Advisor on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah and his son-in-law Rana Ahmad Sheheryar, PS-116 candidate, for failing to comply with the code of conduct for the bypolls.
The DMO order said that a notice was served on Sanaullah today for violating the code of conduct, but he failed to comply and participated in Shehryar’s election campaign by addressing a public meeting at Nawaz Sharif Park, which was broadcast on electronic and social media.
The DMO imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on him, saying the matter would be referred to the ECP in case of non-payment.
The same fine was imposed on Shehryar for failing to respond to Sanaullah’s participation in his election campaign.
