By-polls: Rangers to protect entire NA-246

ISLAMABAD:

To maintain law and order in NA-246, considered an MQM stronghold, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has decided to deploy Rangers officials inside and outside the polling stations on election day.

“The Rangers commanders will have powers of a first class magistrate,” read a short statement issued by the ECP on Thursday.

There have been scuffles between PTI and MQM activists during their ongoing election campaign in the constituency.

Emerging as a potent political force in the 2013 general elections, the PTI had been demanding deployment of army and paramilitary forces on polling day.

The police usually perform security duties during elections and the paramilitary forces are kept on alert for contingencies.

Rangers and army troops are deployed only at polling stations considered ‘sensitive’, where clashes between contestants are more likely.

The entire NA-246 constituency has been declared “very sensitive”, a term used by the ECP for areas where law and order is a serious challenge during the polling process.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 10^th, 2015.