ROs stop election work after LHC order

RAWALPINDI:

After the Lahore High Court’s (LHC) decision to suspend the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) notification to hold general elections in Punjab through the executive, the election work has been stopped in the offices of 18 returning officers and 30 assistant returning officers in six districts of the Rawalpindi division and seven districts of Islamabad.

According to sources, the plaques of DROs, ROs and AROs displayed outside their offices have also been removed. The police guards provided to the ROs have also gone back and all the officers have stopped election work and resumed their departmental duties.

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Until the final decision of the Lahore High Court, these officers will not do election work and if the court issues instructions to hire election duty officers from the judiciary, then all the election duty staff will be handed over to the judicial officers immediately on the same day.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 15^th, 2023.