Army deployed on sensitive polling stations: Election on 16 PA seats of former Fata tomorrow

The military personnel have been deployed inside and outside 464 polling stations that have been marked as 'highly sensitive' by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) as the Commission has finalised arrangements for election on 16 provincial seats of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) scheduled for Saturday (tomorrow).
Moreover, the military men have been deployed outside the remaining 1,433 polling stations that have been marked as 'sensitive,' it is learnt.
The decision has been taken keeping in view the security threats in the region.
According to sources in the ECP, closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras are being installed at all the polling stations of 16 seats of KP Assembly where elections are being scheduled. All the polling equipment including ballot papers, ballot boxes and related material have been sealed in the ECP's electoral boxes that would be sent to the polling stations today (Friday) as per the distribution plan while the polling would continue from 8:00am to 8:00pm tomorrow (Saturday).
The ECP has formed three teams to perform duties during and after polling under the direct supervision of Additional Director General (Elections) Sharifullah. These teams consist of the officials from the ECP's Monitoring, Accounts, Protocol and Elections Branches. Of these teams, two teams would perform duties during polling hours (8:00am to 8:00pm) on July 20 and the third team would work in the night shift after polling (8:00 pm-8:00 am, July 20-21) which would be responsible for supervising the vote count and security of ballot boxes, Business Recorder was informed.
On May 6, the ECP had issued election schedule for 16 seats of KP Assembly of erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) where elections were earlier scheduled on July 2.
However, the KP government approached the ECP last month with the request to delay the elections for up to 20 days on account of security threats and law and order situation in certain parts of erstwhile FATA.
Entertaining the request, the commission had revised the polling date from July 2 to July 20.
The 16 KP Assembly seats where elections are scheduled include PK-100 Bajaur-I, PK-101 Bajaur-II, PK-102 Bajaur-III, PK-103 Mohmand-I, PK-104 Mohmand-Il, PK-105 Khyber-I, PK-106 Khyber-II, PK-107 Khyber-III, PK-108 Kurram-I, PK-109 Kurram-II, PK-110 Orakzai, PK-111 North Waziristan-I, PK-112 North Waziristan-II, PK-113 South Waziristan-I, PK-114 South Waziristan-II, and PK-115 ex-Frontier Regions.
In a landmark move in May last year, the 25th Amendment that allowed FATA's merger with KP was passed by the Parliament and subsequently by the KP Assembly in May 2018.
The amendment allowed reduction of erstwhile FATA seats in the National Assembly from 12 to 6 seats (to be applicable from the next general election) and creation of 16 seats of erstwhile FATA in KP Assembly (within one year of general election).
However, in May 2019, the NA passed the 26th Amendment Bill moved by Mohsin Dawar.
The bill provides for increasing the seats of erstwhile FATA in NA from six to nine and in KP Assembly from 16 to 20.
The bill is yet to be passed by the Senate and then by KP Assembly before it is signed into law by the President of Pakistan.
Given that the general election was held on July 25 last year, the deadline for the completion of the process of FATA merger, in the light of 25th Amendment, is July 25, 2019.
Unless the bill is passed by the Senate and KP Assembly and signed into law by the President, the ECP is bound to hold election on the 16 seats of KP Assembly by or before July 25.
Moreover, Dawar, the mover of 26th Amendment Bill, is presently in the custody of security agencies. Constitutionally, the 26th Amendment Bill, being a private member bill, cannot be presented in the Senate or NA by anyone except its mover.
"Now, even if the Senate and KP Assembly pass the 26th Amendment Bill, the ECP will have to issue a fresh schedule for elections on 20 seats of KP Assembly in accordance with the 26th Amendment.
It would be very difficult to complete this entire process and hold the elections afresh and that too by July 25," a senator from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) told Business Recorder.