Election duties: 10 officials picked up over failure to supply staff lists

District election cell faces shortage of 7,000 staff for polling day duties.

LAHORE:

Police produced representatives of various departments before elections officers here on Monday for their failure to supply lists of employees so they can be assigned election duties.

District Returning Officer (DRO) Nazir Ahmad Gajana had repeatedly directed the various departments to provide employee lists, but they had not done so. He then ordered the police to arrest the 16 officials and produce them before his court to explain the delay. The district election cell faces a shortage of around 7,000 staff for election duties.

The police picked up 10 of the 16 notified officials and produced them before Liaison Officer Sher Abbas Awan on Monday.

They included Ali Gulzar, deputy secretary for the Higher Education Department; Mustafa Bilal, executive engineer at the Irrigation Department; Tariq Mehmood, superintendent of the Government Printing Press; Muhammad Ameen, deputy registrar of the Punjab University; Aftab Ahmed, Sui Gas deputy chief engineer; Amjad Mufti, admin officer at the Technical Educational Board; Irfan Sharif, admin manager at the Tourism Department; and Fida Ahmad, executive district officer for education.

The liaison officer questioned the officials over the delay. Some claimed that they had not received any order to provide employee lists to the district returning officer, while others claimed that their lists were almost complete and would be handed over within hours. They were then released.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Chaudhry Tariq Javed, the coordinator for the DRO, said that officers of various departments were being arrested for not acting upon the DRO’s order to submit lists of their staff. He said that strict action would be taken against those who create obstacles to the election process.

Lists of employees recently provided by the Education Department contained some 3,500 duplicate names, with staff being assigned to duties under two returning officers instead of one.

Many officials have also missed out on election training sessions.

The district coordination officer has warned the absentees that they could face departmental as well as legal action.

7 candidates reported for ad violations

Several violations of the election code of conduct regarding campaign advertisements were taken up by District Returning Officer (DRO) Nazir Ahmad Gajana on Monday.

Election monitoring teams had submitted complaints against seven candidates and three supporters of various political parties. Hafiz Salman Butt of Jamaat-i-Islami (NA-120), Khurram Latif Khosa of PPP (NA-127), Rana Mubashir Iqbal of PML-N (NA-129), Mansha Sindhu of PTI (NA-129) and Dr Yasmeen Rashid of PTI (NA-120) were reported for putting up posters, hoardings or banners larger than the permitted size.

Butt, Khosa, Mian Tariq Aziz of PPP (PP-153) and Mansha Sindhu of PTI were also reported as they featured in adverts drawn on walls in chalk, which has been completely banned by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

PML-N election campaign supporter Mian Abussattar, PTI supporter Hajiz Aziz Awan and PPP supporter Dr Afzal were reported for putting up flexes larger than the permitted size.

The DRO directed the DCO, the SSP (Operations) and the director general of the Parks and Horticulture Authority to remove the offending advertisements and submit a report within three days.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2013.