Electoral process: Arrangements for PP-133, PP-92 by-polls complete

As many as 153,918 voters will exercise their right to vote at 425 polling booths.

GUJRANWALA/ SHAKARGARH:

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has made arrangements to hold by-polls in PP-133 Shakargarh and PP-92 Gujranwala on Tuesday (tomorrow).

In PP-133, 127 polling stations have been set up and 37 of them have been declared sensitive. As many as 153,918 voters would exercise their right to vote at 425 polling booths. As many as 16 polling stations have been reserved for men and women each, while 95 polling stations are for both. As many as 240 polling booths are reserved for men and 185 for women. There will be 127 presiding officers. Of those, 111 will be men and 16 women. There are five police stations in PP-133. The City Police Station will have 32 polling stations, Saddar Police Station 65, Chak Amro Police Station 20, Shah Ghareeb Police Station seven and Kot Nainan Police Station three.

The returning officer for PP-133 is Abdul Sattar. He will be assisted by three assistant returning officers.

In PP-92, the ECP has posted vote chits to over 167,572 voters. Returning Officer Amir Javed said ballot papers and other documents had been packed on Saturday. He said the papers would be handed over on Monday to the staff concerned from the Government Jamia High School, which was the central control room for the by-polls.

He said that over 800 presiding and assistant presiding officers had been deputed to 111 polling stations.



Meanwhile, Pakistan Peoples Party candidate Lala Assadullah Papa and Mahmood Nawaz Chohan accused each other of misuse of government resources. Papa said that the provincial and district government resources were being utilised by Chohan. Chohan said gas meters had been distributed in his constituency and a pipeline was also being laid down.

Independent candidate Mohammad Sarfraz Mehr said no one was taking care of the code of conduct set by the ECP. He said he would win the by-polls if they were held transparently.

The PML-N organised a rally which was attended by thousands of people on Saturday.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 3^rd, 2012.