By Muhammad Najeeb, IANS
Islamabad : As Pakistan gears up for its crucial polls Feb 18, under scrutiny by the international community and media, the interior ministry said that army and paramilitary troops would not be deployed at polling stations, though they would be available for any emergency.
“The government has made adequate security arrangements for peaceful polls and Rangers, Frontier Corps and Frontier Constabulary have been placed at the disposal of provinces and the army has started mobilizing,” Interior Ministry spokesman Javed Iqbal Cheema told IANS.
Cheema said the army was moving to the respective areas and its deployment would be complete by Friday.
He said nobody would be allowed to disrupt the polling process. Any one trying to hinder the process shall be dealt with sternly. No one would be allowed to display or carry weapons on poll day and violators would be arrested and punished, Cheema said.
The official said provincial governments have drawn up plans for the security of 64,175 polling stations in keeping with their sensitivity. In all, 19,380 polling stations have been declared sensitive. These include 11,358 in Punjab, 3,633 in Sindh, 3,219 in the NWFP, 1,150 in Balochistan and 20 in Islamabad.
Cheema said over 1,000 international observers and media persons and about 20,000 Pakistani observers would monitor the elections.
Political parties that are boycotting the elections have meanwhile intensified their campaign and are urging voters not to cast their ballots.
“In some constituencies, these parties are holding public rallies and in a few they are intimidating voters into boycotting the polls,” an interior ministry official said.
He said that the government would “arrest the leaders calling for a boycott if they continued threatening the voters”.
Though the parties are not disrupting election rallies of contesting candidates, they are interfering with voter education programmes being run by the government and some NGOs.
Right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami, former cricketer Imran Khan’s Tehrik-e-Insaaf and some regional parties have announced a boycott of the polls, refusing to contest under President Pervez Musharraf. They have been demanding Musharraf’s resignation and the setting-up of a caretaker government before the polls.
Reports say that Jamaat-i-Islami, Tehrik-e-Insaaf, Pakhtoonkhwa Mili Awami Party, Jamhoori Watan Party, Balochistan National Party, Labour Party Pakistan and National Party are actively campaigning for an election boycott.
The official said that they have received requests by the Election Commission to look into the “activities” of these parties and to stop their campaign against the elections.