Advertisement

Pakistani Army Denies Providing Security For Punjab Provincial Polls

The response from the army has raised serious questions and concerns over the elections of the country's largest province

Amidst the talk of federal government officials of the Defence Ministry working to hold the elections for the Punjab Assembly on 30, April, the Pakistan Army denies providing security for Punjab provincial polls, suggest official media reports on Wednesday.

The response from the army has raised serious questions and concerns over the elections of the country's largest province.

According to reports the ECP has been reaching out to security forces and law enforcement agencies to provide security during the election process.

It added the armed forces have notified that the current security situation in the country remains their first and top priority with the increased number of terror attacks and threats, endangering the law-and-order situation.

ECP claims Defence Secretary Lt. General (Retd) Hamooduz Khan has briefed the Election Commissioner about the law and order and the situation on the border signifying the deployment of troops inside the country.

Khan added the security of the borders is the primary responsibility of the army.   

Terming election duty as a secondary task, he said, the government is the one to decide either to limit the armed forces on their basic duties of border security and terror threat countering or assign them for election security as well.

Commenting on the matter, the Inspector General of Police, Punjab said viewing the terror attack threats by militant groups, security forces remain on high alert.

He said, our troops are also providing security to ongoing census enumerators and in the upcoming months, special deployments will be done at mosques, markets and other possible targets of terror attacks.

Under such circumstances, it would be very difficult to provide security for all the political events, said IG.



Advertisement

Around The World