ISLAMABAD: In yet another move that is apparently aimed at putting off the May 28 general elections in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, the government side on Friday came up with the excuse that elections in the province are too risky to be held given the fragile security and economic situation.
A meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja was given a detailed briefing by provincial Chief Secretary KP Imdadullah Bosal, Inspector General Akhtar Hayat Khan Gandapur, and senior ECP officials about elections in the province scheduled to be held on May 28.
Bosal, who took over as new chief secretary in February this year, said that the province is facing a Rs19 billion financial deficit, while the province would need Rs1.6 billion for holding the elections, which does not include the ECP’s expenditures.
Given the situation, the new chief secretary said that it would be difficult for the province to overcome the financial deficit, adding the fragile security situation in the province is also a big issue as the province needed 56,000 extra policemen for ensuring elections.
The chief secretary went on to say that holding peaceful elections in the province could not be guaranteed due to financial and security issues in the volatile province, adding deployment of Frontier Constabulary (FC) and army personnel would be needed for ensuring peaceful polls.
He said that both FC and the military had undertaken security duty during the 2013 and 2018 general elections and the law and order situation was comparatively far better in both 2013 and 2018 than this year.
Unlike his predecessor Moazzam Ansari who days after a terrorist attack in Peshawar had said the KP Police was ready to hold peaceful elections in the province, the newly-appointed IG KP Gandapur painted a gloomy picture of the security situation in the province, saying the province is facing threats from different militant groups from across the border.
Gandapur claimed that there is evidence that militant groups from Afghanistan’s Badakshan, Paktia, Kunar, Nangarhar, and Nooristan provinces have carried out terrorist attacks in the province and 495 terrorist attacks took place in 2022 alone.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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