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Pakistani soldiers have been deployed along the eastern borders, and will not be supervising polls
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Report
By Asif Farooqi, IOL’s Pakistan Correspondent
ISLAMABAD,
August 21 (IslamOnline) – The Pakistani military government has ruled
out the possibility of supervising of polling stations by the armed
forces during the October general elections, diminishing fears expressed
by certain political groups that the government might try to influence
the polling by stationing army monitors under the pretext of security.
“The
border situation does not allow us to engage our armed forces in any
civil activity including the monitoring of the polls in October” said
Lt Gen Hamid Nawaz, Secretary Ministry of Defense in Pakistan, while
talking to a reporter in Islamabad on Tuesday.
There
is precedence when the armed forces were invited by the civil
governments to supervise the polling stations on the day of polling for
smooth ballot casting and strengthening security.
In
the 1993 elections thousands of armed forces were stationed at the
polling stations throughout the country to monitor the polling process.
Some
political groups, mostly those opposed to the military regime were
privately expressing fears that under the security pretext the regime
may invite the armed forces to supervise polling.
During
the 1993 elections large scale rigging allegations were leveled against
the elected candidates of the Pakistan People Party (PPP). The loosing
candidate had alleged that the army personnel had influenced the
balloting and counting favoring the PPP candidates.
While
ruling out the possibility of the army’s availability for election
duties, General Nawaz, said that an “extra-ordinary” number of
troops had been deployed along the eastern borders to match the Indian
deployment.
“It
takes at least three months to redeploy such a big number of troops so
it won’t be possible even if the government request comes forth at
this point of time,” Hamid said.
The
polls would be held under police security and in some cases rangers
would be deployed at sensitive locations.
