The Government of Sindh has revoked the transfers of senior officials on the directive of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), former Justice Qazi Muhammad Farooq.
This was stated by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Kunwar Muhammad Dilshad, at a briefing here on Saturday. Provincial Election Commissioner, Sindh, Chaudhry Qamar-uz-Zaman, was also present on the occasion.
Dilshad said the four to five important transfers included those of DPO Sukkur, DPO Tando Muhammad Khan and DCO Nausheroferoze, and added that about those transfers, there were observations and reservations on the part of some of the political parties.
The ECP Secretary said that to address those, the Government of Sindh had withdrawn those important transfers and the officials had been restored to their previous positions. "This augurs well," he remarked and pointed out that Government of Sindh had assured that in future no transfer would be effected without permission of the ECP.
Dilshad said the ECP was moving ahead in a systematic manner with regard to complaints that were being received by it, adding that this process was handled in a transparent manner and on the Internet.
He also pointed out that when the ECP referred a complaint to the District and Sessions Judge (DSJ), he issued notice promptly to the person concerned. The ECP Secretary informed that about 1,400 complaints had been received from all over the country and of those 400 had been disposed of so far and matter resolved amicably.
He said that in the wake of the tragic event of December 27, 2007, offices of the ECP in 11 districts of Sindh were also affected. All those offices of the ECP in the province had been activated and all the election related material is being dispatched to those offices, he said.
Dilshad reiterated that the general elections would be held as per schedule on February 18. There are as many as 13,405 polling stations in Sindh and of these about 5,000 have been declared as sensitive. The provincial government was chalking out a strategy regarding this, he added.
Dilshad declared that the entire machinery of the ECP was fully active for the February 18 general elections and that all the preparations were complete. He assured that all the required arrangements were being made for holding polls in a fair, free and transparent manner.