PESHAWAR: The Election commission of Pakistan (ECP) has started training of polling staff for tribal districts elections on Tuesday. The training has been started at each tehsil level of all the tribal districts under the supervision of Election Commission of Pakistan, said the Spokesperson of the ECP.
The 12 days training would end on July 14, 2019. The trainers are Javed Rehmat ADG (TR&E), Muhammad Tariq JS (LGE), Tahir Hussain DS (TR&E), Sajjad Ali Director-I (Training), Kashif Abbas Malik DD (TR&E) and Ghulam Abbas DD (Monitoring).
The first ever elections in merged areas for 16 general seats of the KP Assembly would be held on July 20, 2019, under the 25th amendment in the constitution. The ECP made arrangements for the smooth conduct of elections in the erstwhile FATA.
Meanwhile, The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has asked the Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan to withdraw Section 144 imposed in three tribal districts – South Waziristan, North Waziristan and Bannu – were election is scheduled on July 20.
The letter, written by the PPP secretary general Farhatullah Babar, expressed the fear that the imposition of section 144 will hamper the conduct of a free and fair election in tribal districts of the province. “Access to voters through public meetings by candidates and their party leaders is of paramount importance to present to the people political narratives that can change their lives,” said Babar in his letter.
The former senator said the imposition of measures like Section 144 would nip the opportunity given to the people of tribal districts to change the status quo. “The window of opportunity afforded by the July 20 elections to change the status quo is being closed down by Section 144,” the PPP leader wrote.
The section 144 has been imposed in South Waziristan, North Waziristan and Bannu district.
