Govt okays deployment of army, civil armed forces for Nov 23 by-elections

The federal government on Friday authorised the deployment of the army and the civil armed forces for the upcoming by-elections on November 23.

By-polls are due in NA-18 (Haripur), NA-96 (Faisalabad-II), NA-104 (Faisalabad-X), NA-143 (Sahiwal-III), NA-185 (Dera Ghazi Khan-II), NA-129 (Lahore-XIII), PP-73 (Sargodha-III), PP-98 (Faisalabad-I), PP-115 (Faisalabad-XVIII), PP-116 (Faisalabad-XIX), PP-203 (Sahiwal-VI), PP-269 (Muzaffargarh-II) and PP-87 (Mianwali-III) on Sunday.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) had sent letters to the federal secretaries of defence and interior on Thursday, requesting them to deploy civil armed forces/army to allow peaceful conduct of polling and also to take other appropriate measures to protect the lives of election officials, voters and the public at large.

An order, available with media, issued today from the interior ministry said the government authorised the deployment of “sufficient strength” of civil armed forces as second-tier responders on standby in quick reaction force (QRF) mode only and the Pakistan Army as third-tier responders in QRF mode under Articles 220 and 245 of the Constitution.

It added that the troops were empowered to exercise powers under Sections 4 and 5 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, 1997, from Saturday to Monday.

“The exact number of troops will be worked out by the respective home departments and Election Commission of Pakistan in consultation with concerned stakeholders on the basis of on ground requirements/assessment,” the order said.

Faisalabad DMO fines Rana Sanaullah, son-in-law

Separately, Faisalabad District Monitoring Officer Muhammad Murtaza Malik fined Adviser to the Prime Minister on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah and his son-in-law, Rana Ahmad Sheheryar, candidate for PS-116, for failing to comply with the code of conduct for the by-polls.

The DMO’s order said a notice was served to Sanaullah today for violating the code of conduct, but he failed to comply and participated in Shehryar’s election campaign by addressing a public gathering at Nawaz Sharif Park, which was broadcast on electronic and social media.

The DMO imposed a Rs50,000 fine on him, saying the matter would be referred to the ECP on failure of payment.

The same fine was imposed on Shehryar for failure to provide a reply to Sanaullah’s participation in his election campaign.