The Government of Punjab denies the impression created by a news item appearing in a number of papers today based on a letter reportedly written by Senator Ishaq Dar to the Election Commission of Pakistan.
The Caretaker Government of Punjab has taken all necessary steps to assist the Election Commission of Pakistan in holding General Elections, justly, fairly, in accordance with law and in order to prevent corrupt practices. This include making arrangements for peaceful conduct of polling on the polling day, i.e., 11th May, 2013.
As a standard practice, in order to deploy police on the day of polling, polling stations are categorized. A meeting chaired by Rao Iftikhar Ahmad, Additional Chief Secretary, was held on May 1, 2013. The meeting was attended, among others, by D.I.G (Special Branch) and A.I.G. (Operations), CPO. During the meeting Police Department was asked to categorize police stations on the basis of a number of parameters. These parameters included terrorist threats, sectarian issues, previous history of violence, local enmities, feuds and the nature of close contest at polling stations. These parameters were also shared with Provincial Election Commission on telephone and during the Provincial Election Coordination Cell meeting. Later the Police Department conveyed these parameters to all District Police Officers.
The Additional Chief Secretary, who is in-charge of coordinating arrangements with Election Commission of Pakistan did repeatedly follow up with the Divisional and District administrations on the issue to ensure that the administration is fully prepared to deal with any eventuality. The exercise was a part of the security planning and was not meant to make any constituency wide projections.