General Elections 2013:

PTI, PML-N supporters celebrate victories

• Sunday, 12 May 2013

Homer Baloch

ISLAMABAD: The supporters of Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf separately continued celebrating victory of their respective parties in Saturday's election.
A large number of party supporters thronged the party offices to share their joys with fellow supporters on the holiday, while youngsters took to the city roads on motorbikes to express their feelings in a zigzag fashion, waving flags of their parties.
The supporters of both the parties were looking more than happy on the unexpected success of their supportive candidates. They expressed their joys by raising slogans in favour of their supportive parties and playing their party anthems in their vehicles loudly.
The day also witnessed a large number of PML-N and PTI supporters visiting their party offices. However, in some residential areas the loud noises created by motorbikes with their silencers removed ridden by youth irked the citizens.
Raja Shaukat, a supporter of PML-N told The Spokesman, “The public did not listen to the propaganda spread by other political parties and casted their votes for the right political party, which is PML-N. Now it is time to celebrate the success.”
While Nabeel Ahmed, a PTI fan said, “PTI did to secure most seats for the national assembly as we all were expecting, but this actually beginning of the positive political change. The educated class of the capital has also chose PTI as their representative party”.
In NA-48, PTI’s Makhdoom Javed Hashmi won the seat by securing 73,692 votes. He was competing with PML-N’s Anjum Aqeel with 52,170 votes, PPPP’s Faisal Sakhi Butt with 9,177 votes and JI’s Mian Aslam with 25,010 votes.
Total turnout in this constituency was 59.55 percent, while in NA-49, the second constituency of federal capital, Dr Tariq Fazal Choudhary of PML-N was declared successful who secured 95,701 votes out of 334,214 registered voters. He was competing with PTI’s Choudhary Ilyas Meherban with 57,160 votes, PPPP’s Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar with 44,646 votes and JI’s Zubair Farooq with 11,230 votes. In this constituency, the total turnout remained 64.36 percent.

General Elections 2013:

EC’s rules clearly violated by some parties

• Saturday, 11 May 2013

Homer Baloch

ISLAMABAD: The federal capital has witnessed a very safe day during the election regarding the security situation. In two constituencies NA-48 and 49 of Islamabad, 6,500 police officials were deployed by the capital administration. Among total 548 polling stations, 40 were declared sensitive.

However in some polling stations, Election Commission’s rules for keeping the political camps 40 meters away from the polling stations were clearly violated by the political parties. The city was having a normal atmosphere beside the blast incidents occurred during and before the election day in many areas of the country.
Two helicopters throughout the day kept the city under their monitoring while Frontier Corp, Ranger’s and a large number of police officials from Azad Kashmir were also deployed in the city to handle any unwanted incident. The capital administration had also imposed Section 144 in Islamabad through which, usage of loud speakers and display of arms and ammunition was strictly banned.
In many areas of Sector I-8, I-9 and I-10, the polling camps were installed adjacent to the polling station while ECP’s law clearly states that installing political camps less than 400 meters from the polling station is illegal. Inspector Ulfat Arif, supervising the security arrangements at IMCG near I-8 Markaz when contacted said that, “these political agents in the camps are actually assisting the voters by telling them how to cast their votes, and in this area, there is nothing wrong if they have installed their camps close to the polling station.”
The main focus of the security personnel were on the highly sensitive polling stations of the city including the polling stations of Lohi Bher and Charrah area. While according the report of security agencies, the political clashes between the Pakistan Muslim League-N and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s workers was also expected but till the end of the day, the polling process went peacefully.
According to the statements of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences and the Federal Government Services Hospital’ spokespersons, the hospital did not receive any patient got injured or affected during the polling process. PIMS’s spokesperson Dr Waseem Khawaja when contacted said that the hospital was already on high alert from the last two days and the holidays of the medical as well as paramedical staff had been cancelled just to handle any emergency situation during the electoral process.
The polling station in NA-48 Polling Station (14) Food Officer’s office sector I-11 was declared sensitive by the capital administration of Islamabad due to its location in slum area where mostly afghan natives are residing. In the male polling station, two political agents of PTI and JI were reported to clash on a minor issue, which was later resolved by the interruption of police.
A police official deployed in the polling station told that, only five local police officials are deployed in the sensitive polling station while rest of the others are the officials called from Azad & Jammu Kashmir. On every polling station, between 5 to 15 police officials were deployed with respect to the sensitivity, while between 2 to 1 woman police officials were deployed on woman polling stations. In NA-48 polling station No (196) of Islamabad Model College for Girls (IMCG) I-8/2, The woman waiting in voter’s row were teased by the male voters who started to gather in front of female polling station after casting their votes, but the situation was handled by the police officials after their interruption. In the same polling station, male police officials were also found settling the female voters in queue inside the female polling section in the presence of female police officials. The police officials when asked stated that it was due to a large number of female voters appeared to cast their votes and the situation was not possible for a single female official to handle.
In NA-48 polling station no (221) IMCG I-9/1, the presiding officer complained to the Election Commission Pakistan’s Inspector on visit, that the staff in the polling station is insufficient according to the number of voters while the staff and principle of the school in which the polling station was made, is also not cooperating with them. Muhammad Irfan, the ECP’s Inspector assured him that the higher authorities will be informed about the issue and an inquiry will be conducted for this.

General Elections 2013:

ICT divided into 17 sectors for election day security

• Friday, 10 May 2013 

Homer Baloch

ISLAMABAD: The capital administration and police have finalised security plans for the general election, to be held today.
The capital administration has imposed Section 144 to deal any unwanted incident, while two helicopters will be monitoring the city during the polling. Almost 6,000 security officials from the capital police, Islamabad Traffic police, Frontier Corp, Rangers and police commandoes, from other provinces, will also be guarding the city. To assure the safety, commandos will be deployed at the highly-sensitive polling stations while police control room has been made in Aabpara Police Station and F-8/3 Model College. The administration and the police have finalised their security arrangements for the both constituencies of the federal capital.
The deputy commissioner has issued orders to impose Section 144 in the city during which usage of loud speakers and arms display will be strictly banned. The city has also been divided into 17 sectors and 34 sub-sectors by the capital, just to manage the security arrangements easily. About 10 police officials will be deployed at the sensitive polling stations while five officials will be deployed at normal polling stations.
However more police officials as well as commandos will be deployed at the highly-sensitive polling stations. On 548 polling stations, there will be 3,000 police officials will be deployed, while 2,000 Ranger personnel will also be present to handle any unwanted situation, a police spokesperson stated. About 400 officials from the Traffic Police will also perform their duties during the day.
On the other hand, six superintendents as well as 18 assistant superintendents and deputy superintendents will also perform their duties regarding city’s security. To assure the un-interrupted coordination between the police officials, two police control rooms are also made in Aabpara and F-8/4 Model College under the supervision of a superintendent.