Election duties: 11 officials arrested for failure to provide staff lists

Officials released after pledging to supply lists to election cell today.

LAHORE: Police arrested eleven officials of various departments and produced them before Liaison Officer Sher Abbas Awan of the District Election Cell on Wednesday to explain why they had not supplied lists of employees so they could be assigned election day duties.

Shehzad Shakeel, deputy administrator at the Directorate General of Public Relations; Dr Zaheer Ahmed, assistant director at the Animal Health Directorate; Manzoor Hussain, assistant director for Fisheries; and officials from the Punjab Services Tribunal, Anti Corruption Department, Transport Department, Planning and Development Department, Pakistan Tourism Department, Fisheries Department, Directorate of Agriculture, Directorate General of the National Accountability Bureau, and Government Degree Collage, Shadbagh, were produced before the liaison officer.

The district returning officer had directed various departments to provide him with details of their employees so that he could compile a list of 5,000 officials who could be kept in reserve for deployment on election day. However, several departments did not provide the required information.

On Wednesday, the district returning officer issued bailable arrest warrants for the department representatives concerned and directed the police to produce them before the election cell. The officials assured the liaison officer that they would supply the required lists on May 9 (today). They were then released.

On April 29, the police had produced 16 officials before the liaison officer after they failed to supply the required lists.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2013.