Electronic voting machines to be used in next polls: ECP

 

ISLAMABAD: The Secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Ishtiak Ahmad Khan, has said the EC has decided to introduce Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in the next general elections to be held in 2018, reminding that it was a demand of all the political parties.
ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmad revealed this at the EC Secretariat after the formal launch of the second five-year strategic plan of the electoral body on Thursday.About the features of the machines that would have an in-built biometric verification system, he said this had already been finalised and necessary orders for production of prototype machines for pilot projects had been issued.

The ECP secretary, however, said the introduction of EVMs for general elections would require legislation by parliament.After Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the government of Sindh, in what may be perceived as delaying tactics, has also evinced interest in the use of biometric machines during the local bodies elections.

The secretary noted that Sindh had also requested for biometric verification of voters in the local government polls. He was of the view that the local government polls in the KP could be possible in November this year.

To a question, he said 4.5 million expatriates holding National Identity Cards for Overseas Pakistanis (NICOP) had been enrolled as voters. But, he said, that enabling them to cast their votes at polling stations established abroad would also require relevant legislation.

The EC, he pointed out, was in the process of preparing a draft package of electoral reforms. He noted that reforming the electoral legal framework was the first of the 13 broader goals set under the second strategic plan.

Ishtiak said a key feature of the electoral reforms package to be sent to parliament would be the power of the EC to take action against the polling staff, including the returning officers, district returning officers and presiding officers, found involved in wrongdoings.

It may be mentioned here that there had been strong demands for holding accountable all those who were responsible for ensuring transparency and fairness on the polling day, yet cases of casting multiple votes surfaced in the constituencies where voter thumb verification was carried out.

To another query, he said the EC derived its powers from the Constitution and the law. He said under the law, if a detailed enquiry into an allegation of electoral irregularity was required, it fell under the domain of the election tribunals.

He said matters like last minute change in the polling scheme could also be raised before the election tribunals.On a report by the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen) about the number of rejected votes in 35 National Assembly constituencies outnumbering the difference between the votes secured by the winners and runners-up, he said it was not something surprising. “Had the votes been rejected without any ground, the issue could have been raised before the returning officer, who invites all candidates before opening the bags containing votes,” he remarked.

He underlined the need for fresh delimitation of national and provincial assembly constituencies in view of the demographic changes that had taken place over the years. He called for holding the much-delayed population census in the country.

The ECP secretary said a summary to this effect moved by the ECP had been approved by the prime minister and the matter was currently pending with the Council of Common Interests (CCI).

Ishtiak announced the ECP also planned to introduce the Geographical Information System (GIS) for delimitation to make the process foolproof. He said the candidates would be able to see their entire constituency on website.

Imran should wait for next polls, not short-cuts: Pervaiz

LAHORE: Federal Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid has said that PTI Chairman Imran Khan should wait for the next general elections instead of taking short-cuts.

In an interview, he said that the protests of the PTI and Awami Tehreek were no more than a storm in a teacup and they would not succeed in their efforts. He said that the protest of Imran Khan was the manifestation of his disappointment over his party’s failure to deliver in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

He added that Khan raised the issues of talks with the Taliban and the drone attacks for political gains but when he did not achieve his target in this way, he came up with the old issue of alleged rigging in the polls.

On the rally of Dr Tahirul Qadri to be held on May 11, Rashid said that Dr Qadri, who talked of the the people, would lead the “Canada Rally” on the day.The information minister remarked that Dr Qadri did not accept the Constitution and the democratic system but Imran Khan was walking shoulder-to-shoulder with him.

He said the government would not hinder the peaceful protest but if any of the political parties resorted to any illegal activity, the law would take its due course.He said that to hold a protest was the legal right of every political party, but it should be carried out within the limits stated by the Constitution and the law.

Imran boycotts Jang Group, accuses it of influencing polls

 

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman, Imran Khan, on Friday accused Geo TV of being a part in rigging during the 2013 general elections and announced to boycott the Jang Group and the channel.
Talking to media persons here, Imran said that no PTI representative would appear on Geo or subscribe to the Jang Group newspapers till the time the private television apologised for its role in the rigging.

Imran demanded of the government to investigate through an independent commission the foreign funding coming to the media houses, including Geo, which had allegedly received money from the US and other foreign sources.

He justified his party’s decision to take to the streets against the “unprecedented rigging’ in the last year’s general elections and singled out the returning officers (ROs) for their role in the irregularity, saying that he would not let this go without a probe.

Imran noted that PTI candidate for NA-118 had to pay a total of Rs5.2 million for thumbprint verification of voters, the election tribunal and lawyer fee, and it was found that out of 325 bags, 170 were opened while only 69 had all the requisite documents.

He continued that out of 170,000 votes cast in the constituency, only 81,000 had either partial or complete record and more importantly, 70 bags did not belong to the Election Commission of Pakistan but were altered.

The PTI chairman pointedtribunals to going to the Supreme Court (SC) and raising the issue in the National Assembly.“This was simply because the PTI did not want to destabilise the government. Never at any time did the PTI accept the rigging that had clearly taken place in general elections 2013,” he noted.

Imran asserted that almost a year had passed and neither the tribunals nor the SC had given any decisions on their petitions. PTI’s demand for thumbprint verification in only four constituencies had still not been acceded by the ECP and the petition for the same remained undecided by the SC.

The PTI chairman said that his party had been left with no option but to come out on to the streets to protest the rigging so that future elections were made transparent and fair, or people would lose faith in the entire electoral process.

“Others will assume that the only way to win is through rigging. And the unprecedented turnout of youth and the urban professionals who came out to vote will again retreat and they won’t bother to cast their votes. This bodes ill for the future of democracy in Pakistan and the PTI will not allow this to happen,” he noted.

Imran pointed to the ‘questionable role’ of the ex-chief justice of Pakistan, the ROs and the Election Commissioners from the Punjab and Sindh in aiding and abetting rigging, along with the now infamous 35 punctures of the then Punjab acting Chief Minister Najam Sethi, who had been duly rewarded.

He drew attention to the comprehensive PTI White Paper on rigging as well as the Fafen report.The PTI chief recalled when thumbprint verifications were ordered and then Nadra chief complied in NA 118, Babar Sattar stated that the Nadra chief was threatened by Rana Sanaullah and then removed. The IHC decision on Nadra chief’s removal corroborated this statement.

It is interesting to note that for other reasons, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which was in power, had also boycotted Geo for some months but had to return to it on its own. PTI’s boycott of Jang Group was discussed during the recently held Core Committee meeting and more deliberations were held in a select group of party leaders.

Party insiders told ‘The News’ that the boycott of the leading media group, which been in the forefront in projecting the PTI, would be counterproductive, as ultimately Imran would have to end it, as had the PPP.

India goes to polls in biggest voting day

NEW DELHI: India hosts its biggest day of voting Thursday in its marathon election, with the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty battling to save the ruling Congress party from defeat to opposition Hindu nationalist leader Narendra Modi.

More than 195 million voters in 121 constituencies across a dozen states are eligible to cast ballots in the largest single day of polling in the over month-long election which ends May 12.

The key day comes after India's most famous family cranked up the rhetoric in a bid to claw back support from Modi, saying the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate was a threat to the nation's secular foundations.

The Nehru-Gandhi clan, which has dominated the country since independence from Britain in 1947, has emerged fighting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, daughter Priyanka and son Rahul all on the campaign trail.

Surveys have suggested Congress, under Rahul's leadership, is heading for a crushing defeat at the hands of the right-wing BJP.

Sonia, 67, the left-leaning Congress party matriarch, told voters Modi would rip India's secular fabric, accusing him of representing a "dangerous combination of religious fanaticism, power and money".

Sonia's daughter, Priyanka, 42, seen as the most gifted politician of India's so-called "first family" which has given the country three premiers, said Modi would spread divisions between the majority Hindu and minority Muslim communities.

"The ideology of Congress is to unite people and maintain the unity of the country while that of the opposition is to divide," she said.

- India 'first family' feud -

Priyanka has strongly taken up the torch for India's secular identity, accusing her estranged cousin Varun Gandhi, a BJP candidate, of "betrayal" of the family heritage in a headline-making feud this week.

Rahul, 43, has accused Modi of displaying "anger and arrogance".

Modi's Hindu nationalist rhetoric and failure to swiftly curb 2002 deadly anti-Muslim riots that swept Gujarat state when he was chief minister have stirred worries among critics about his ability to maintain secular peace.

The BJP leader has never been found guilty by official investigations of any wrongdoing over the riots in which at least 1,000 people, mainly Muslims, died.

Modi, 63, struck back late Wednesday at the Gandhi family's attacks, saying it was their "obsession to pull Modi down".

"But Modi does not lose, does not die," he said, referring to himself in the third person, according to local media.

He rejected demands he apologise for the riots, saying he committed no crime.

"If I am guilty, hang me in the street square," he said.

He added Muslims in the holy Hindu city of Varanasi where he is seeking a parliamentary seat "love me when they meet me".

Modi, who has declared only he can revive India's sagging economy, said the BJP would score its "best" victory while the "useless and corrupt" Congress faced its "worst" defeat.

An opinion poll by NDTV network this week forecast the BJP would win 226 seats and with its coalition allies grab over 50 percent of the constituencies.

Voters have turned against Congress over massive graft scandals, spiralling inflation and the sharp economic slowdown, polls indicate.

Premier Manmohan Singh, 81, a respected economist handpicked by Sonia after she returned Congress to power following a nearly decade-long stint in the political wilderness, has been portrayed in a new book by his ex-press aide as a powerless puppet.

Congress said the decision to wheel out Sonia and Priyanka, who easily outshines her more awkward brother Rahul, was part of an earlier mapped strategy but analysts say it smacks of desperation.

ECP seeks 6-9 months time for LB polls in Sindh, Punjab

ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has sought more time for holding local bodies (LB) polls in Sindh and Punjab.

The ECP on Tuesday submitted a plea in the Supreme Court (SC) in which it had prayed that 6 to 9 months are required for delimitation of constituencies, therefore, more time is required for holding LB elections in Sindh and Punjab.

The commission said it will take 6 to 9 months for LB polls in both the provinces.

Abdullah leading in Afghan polls

 

KABUL: Former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah is leading his closest rival Ashraf Ghani in early results from the Afghan presidential election, the Independent Election Commission (IEC) said on Sunday, but figures indicate a likely run-off vote.
“Today we announce the partial results of 26 provinces with 10 percent of votes counted, these include (provinces) in the north, south, east, west and Kabul,” said Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani, the IEC chief.

“With 500,000 votes from 26 provinces Dr Abdullah is leading with 41.9 percent; Dr Ashraf Ghani has 37.6 percent and is in second place; and Zalmai Rassoul has 9.8 percent in third position.”

Nuristani stressed the figurewas only partial and could change drastically in the coming days, when more partial results would be announced. A run-off election between the two leading candidates will be triggered if no single candidate gains more than 50 percent of the vote when the final results are announced in late May.

But Nuristani cautioned against reading too much into the early results. “These results are changeable. Today one candidate might be leading but when we announce more results another candidate might be leading,” he said.

Of the eight provinces for which results have not been announced, two are in the north (Badakhshan and Baghlan) and two in the east (Nuristan and Paktika). The others are Daykundi in the centre, southern Ghazni and Wardak and the western province of Ghor.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan welcomed the announcement as a “first snapshot that will regularly be updated by the IEC”. “I urge presidential candidates and their supporters to display patience while vote tallying is completed,” said Jan Kubis, UN Special Representative to Afghanistan, in a statement.

Abdullah, who was born to an ethnic Pashtun father and a Tajik mother, is more associated with the northern Tajiks. More than seven million people defied bad weather and Taliban threats of violence to vote in the April 5 first round of the election, earning praise from world leaders.

Ahead of the vote there were fears that a repeat of the massive fraud which, blighted Karzai’s re-election in 2009, would undermine the winner’s legitimacy at a testing time for the war-torn country.

But the Election Complaints Commission announced on Sunday there had been “less fraud” in the current poll. “We have received 1,892 complaints with evidence, (including) 1,382 through phone,” said spokesman Nader Mohseni, adding that 870 of the complaints fell into the most serious category.

“We will review all the complaints. Based on the reviews and numbers provided by the observers there has been less fraud in this election compared to the previous one,” he said.Ghani’s camp was set to hold a press conference later on Sunday to discuss the partial results.

Abdullah, an ophthalmologist by training, came second in the 2009 election to current President Hamid Karzai, in a vote that was internationally denounced as fraudulent. He was a resistance fighter against the Soviet occupation in the 1980s and was a close friend and adviser to Ahmad Shah Massoud, a revered Tajik leader who fought the Taliban during their 1996-2001 rule and was assassinated two days before the September 11, 2011 attacks on the United States.

Ghani is a former World Bank economist and globally renowned intellectual, who has shed some of his wonk image during his current campaign and is more favoured by the country’s majority Pashtuns. Former physician Zalmai Rassoul, another Pashtun, was seen as Karzai’s favourite — a charge that he denied.

All three pre-election favourites have pledged to protect women’s rights, reach out for a peace deal with the Taliban and sign a bilateral security pact with the United States that would allow at least 10,000 troops to stay for the next ten years.

Pakistanis on tenterhooks as neighbour goes to polls

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistani street has taken notice—the neighbour is election-bound. The first signifier has been the augmented levels of bashing the old bugbear—Pakistan—by the front-runner. It has the average Pakistani appalled and bemused, especially since its own poll-bound leaders had advocated peaceful, enhanced ties with India.
While a BJP government is remembered here as one that showed great political will and initiative to improve bilateral ties, its prime ministerial candidate in 2014, Narendra Modi, is not fully understood in Pakistan. “There are too many unknowns about Modi, a polarising politician in India and about his foreign policy team. There is a sense of apprehension about what a Narendra Modi victory would mean for India-Pakistan relations. The muscular nationalism he represents could translate into a hardening of India’s stance on issues affecting ties,” former Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi tells The News.

Any good intent the Manmohan Singh-led UPA might have had towards building good ties with Pakistan fell victim to the 26/11 Mumbai attack, but former Pakistani ambassador to the US, Sherry Rehman, says her country has a duty to fulfil too. “The sense is that official Delhi’s studied ‘peace fatigue’ over a revival of the composite dialogue over the last two years will continue unless Islamabad changes the game on penalties for Mumbai,” she wrote in The News.

Who can say with absolute certainty in Pakistan that there will not be another Mumbai? There are no signs that the Punjabi jihadis have been restrained or that General Headquarters in Rawalpindi has cut off all ties and support to them?

Actually, none can dismiss the possibility of another 26/11. Though a tenuous ceasefire with the Taliban drags on, there are no signs that the Punjabi jihadis have been restrained. As their involvement in Afghanistan scales down, these jihadis will have lots of spare time. In the eventuality of a terror incident, Pakistan can be wary of a divisive figure in New Delhi. “What is worrying is that whatever the numbers, given the high-octane right-wing discourse fuelling rhetoric on a corporatised Indian media, all bets on a Manmohan-like restraint (as after 26/11) amid a possible crisis with Pakistan may well be off,” warns Sherry Rehman.

But any leftover bonhomie towards India is itself wearing thin in Pakistan. Many here have taken to ridiculing Nawaz Sharif for his so-called ‘petticoat’ policy of ‘appeasement’. Former Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokar says that Modi should not be invited to Pakistan as he is no moderate Vajpayee.

“If Modi wins, he will be a prisoner of the RSS, the Hindu fundamentalist and fascist organisation. The RSS, which has brought him this far, is anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan. Modi is anti-Pakistan and will show no flexibility or pragmatism on substantive issues between the two countries,” says Khokar of Modi’s ideological moorings.

In contrast, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who met Vajpayee in a 2002, and whose Mullah diplomacy with Vajpayee saw air corridors opening up after being closed in the aftermath of an attack on Delhi’s Parliament, has no misgivings about a BJP-led government. “We do not share the nervousness in many quarters that if the BJP wins, it will seal the fate of any revival of composite dialogue with Pakistan. Their anti-Pakistan rhetoric is merely campaign posturing. They may be more willing to talk to Pakistan, as history suggests, depending on the size of its victory”, JUI-F spokesman Jan Achakzai says.

Indeed, as in any polls, the BJP’s room for manoeuvre depends on its performance. Lodhi agrees. “The political complexion and stability of the next government will have a bearing on the speed and content of the normalisation process with Pakistan,” she says.

Other voices point to the keenness of the Nawaz Sharif government for a breakthrough in ties, surmounting the kind of bureaucratic and political obstacles which paralysed the UPA in New Delhi, especially after the 26/11 attacks.

Senator Mushahid Hussain says that the weak and embattled Congress has effectively buried itself between a resurgent BJP and the sudden challenge of the AAP. “The positive thing is that in South Asia in 2014, Pakistan’s role as a pivotal player has been restored, with both China and US wooing Islamabad; in the aftermath of the Crimean crisis and Middle Eastern turmoil, Pakistan’s room for diplomatic manoeuvre has expanded, a reality any new Indian government will need to cope with,” says Mushahid.

Many Pakistani analysts also see hope in Modi’s ‘Gujarat model’ translating into smoother bilateral ties with Pakistan. Back from a recent trip to India, The News correspondent, Amir Mateen, says he sees an India obsessed with economic issues, which may tempt Modi towards political concessions. “Particularly so when it desperately needs to revive economic growth from under five per cent to levels where it could pretend to compete with China,” says Mateen.

Agrees Gen Athar Abbas, after his first visit to India: “Eventually, corporate interests will take over and move towards normalisation of ties with Pakistan.” However, he questions the tendency to regard Modi’s premiership as inevitability. “Modi is faced with a lot of resistance from within; that may create obstacles for getting the prime minister’s slot,” he adds.

Shaheen Sehbai, Group editor at The News, which called Modi “a particularly noxious figure” in an editorial and added that “...the BJP will pursue an anti-Muslim agenda,” says, “Although he would show his muscle to hustle Muslims, Kashmiris and Pakistan, sooner than later, Modi will be tamed, since as prime minister of a country with high economic, regional and international ambitions, he cannot afford to behave like a guttersnipe.” Sehbai says that Modi needs to “grow faster”, before he does lasting damage to India-Pakistan relations.

However, theories about Modi prioritising the economic front—and that leading to better India-Pakistan ties are being questioned. “The apprehension is which part of the ‘Gujarat model’ will prevail? Will his aggressive Muslim/Pakistan-bashing triumph or will his regional foreign policy outlook be determined by business and economic considerations?” wonders Mushahid.

Rehman says that even if Pakistani democrats see “regional cooperation as the future, albeit on mutual terms, in India, even outside an election cycle, the Lok Sabha can rock with a nationalism that chokes dialogue with Pakistan.” Even if one were to concede that the challenges of being PM would ‘tame’ Modi, how ‘easy’ would it be, asks Lodhi, for a BJP government “to be able to make diplomatic compromises to Pakistan while not being on the defensive over its Pakistan policy?”

“The key question for Pakistan,” says Lodhi, “is whether the next government in New Delhi will agree to revive the broad-based ‘composite’ dialogue or persist with an approach that limits the bandwidth of talks by cherry-picking issues only of priority for India.”

The debate rages on in Pakistan. Meanwhile, a tongue-in-cheek Gen Abbas slips in a fast one. “I see Modi less as a Pakistani headache and more of a pain in India’s neck,” he says.

Polls in 48 countries in 2014

LAHORE: India is one of the 48 countries going to polls during 2014, though the number of its voters (over 814 million) is far greater than any other nation.

This year the number of voters in India is larger than the population of Europe, making this the biggest election the world has ever seen. In the past five years, India has added a population greater than that of the Philippines to its voter rolls.

Having a population in excess of 1.2 billion, the world’s largest democracy of India has set up a solitary polling both in a remote section of the Gir forests, Gujarat, for just a single voter. Overall, some 930,000 polling stations have been established countrywide. During the last Indian electoral exercise, the oldest winning candidate was of the age of 94 years and the youngest had won a seat at the age of 26 years.

Some 28,314 voters, classified as “Transgender persons,” will be exercising their right of franchise in the 2014 Indian ballot that will lead to an elected government, which will actually be representing nearly one out of every 5 people on the planet!The shortest-lived Indian government was once formed by the Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP), which could last just 13 days on the throne.

Massive turnout in Afghan polls defies Taliban threat

 

KABUL: Afghans flocked to polling stations nationwide on Saturday, defying a threat of violence by the Taliban to cast ballots in what promises to be the nation’s first democratic transfer of power.
Polling stations closed after nearly 10 hours of voting that saw a massive turnout, including in some of the most dangerous areas of the country. Electoral workers wearing blue vests with the logo of the Independent Election Commission pulled the paper ballots out of boxes and carefully showed them in footage live on national television on Saturday. Partial results are expected as soon as Sunday. Saturday’s vote was a sharp contrast from Afghanistan’s 2009 election, which was marred by widespread allegations of vote-rigging that tarnished President Hamid Karzai’s re-election.

Turnout from Afghanistan’s presidential election was seven million out of 12 million eligible voters, or about 58 percent, election commission chief Ahmad Yousuf Nuristani said. Nuristani told reporters the figure of seven million was based on preliminary estimates.

The excitement over choosing a new leader for the first time appeared to overwhelm the fear of bloodshed in many areas, as Afghans embarked on a major transition nearly 13 years after the US-led invasion toppled the rule of the Taliban.

Despite Taliban threats, voting was largely peaceful with long queues in cities across the country as voters cast their ballots at around 6,000 centres under tight security. The Taliban rejected the election process saying that the polls under the supervision of the foreign forces had no importance. The Taliban had urged their fighters to target polling staff, voters and security forces, but there were no major attacks reported during the day.

Polling stations started to close at 5:00pm (1230 GMT), though officials said that people already in line would still be allowed to vote. In Kabul, hit by a series of deadly attacks during the election campaign, hundreds of people lined up in the open air to vote despite heavy rain and the insurgents’ threat of violence. “I’m not afraid of Taliban threats, we will die one day anyway. I want my vote to be a slap in the face of the Taliban,” housewife Laila Neyazi, 48, told AFP. Poll security was a major concern following the attacks in Kabul, most recently a suicide bombing on Wednesday that killed six police officers.

But a fatal blast was reported in Logar province, south of Kabul, where one person was killed and two wounded according to Mohammad Agha district chief Abdul Hameed Hamid. IEC chief Nuristani said attacks or fear of violence had forced 211 of a total 6,423 voting centres to remain closed. The day before the poll, Associated Press photographer Anja Niedringhaus was shot dead by a police commander in eastern Khost province. She was the third journalist working for the international media to be killed during the election campaign, after Swedish journalist Nils Horner and Sardar Ahmad of Agence France-Presse. Interior Minister Omar Daudzai said all 400,000 of Afghanistan’s police, army and intelligence services were being deployed to ensure security around the country.

Afghans have taken over responsibility for security from US-led forces and this year the last of the Nato coalition’s 51,000 combat troops will pull out, leaving local forces to battle the resilient Taliban insurgency without their help. In the western city of Herat, a queue of several hundred people waited to vote at one polling station, while in Jalalabad in the east, voters stood patiently outside a mosque. Voters also lined up in Kandahar city, the southern heartland of the Taliban, with some women among the crowd in contrast to the 2009 election when turnout was very low due to poor security.

The country’s third presidential election brings an end to 13 years of rule by Karzai, who has held power since the Taliban were ousted in 2001.

Around 13.5 million people were eligible to vote from an estimated total population of 28 million. As well as the first round of the presidential election, voters also cast ballots for provincial councils.

The front-runners to succeed Karzai are former foreign minister Zalmai Rassoul, Abdullah Abdullah — runner up in the 2009 election — and former World Bank academic Ashraf Ghani. There is no clear favourite and if no candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round — preliminary results for which will be announced on April 24 — a run-off is scheduled for late May. Massive fraud and widespread violence marred Karzai’s re-election in 2009 and a disputed result this time would add to the challenges facing the new president. Whoever emerges victorious must lead the fight against the Taliban without the help of more Nato troops, and also strengthen an economy reliant on declining aid money. The election may offer a chance for Afghanistan to improve relations with the United States, its principal donor, after the mercurial Karzai years. Relations fell to a new low late last year when Karzai refused to sign a security agreement that would allow the US to keep around 10,000 troops in Afghanistan to train local forces and hunt al-Qaeda.

Pakistan closes crossing points to boost security for Afghan polls

RAWALPINDI: A spokesman of Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Friday that additional troops have been deployed on Pak Afghan border since 20th March 2014 to reinforce existing security arrangements for conduct of peaceful elections in Afghanistan.

Host of measures have been taken for the purpose after due deliberation and coordination with Afghan Security forces, he said in a statement issued here.

Checking by immigration staff at crossing points has been enhanced and patrolling has been increased in areas close to the border.

He said strict checking measures have been taken on routes from mainland leading towards border areas.

All crossing points have been closed from today till conclusion of polling on the Election Day. The spokesman said that communication at Border Coordination Centres on both sides has also been enhanced and a hotline contact has been established between the two Military Operations directorates.

Additionally aerial surveillance will also be carried out to check any untoward cross border movement, he concluded.

 

Fresh polls if MPs blackmailed me for ministries: Imran

ISLAMABAD: Facing a split-like situation in the party, PTI chief Imran Khan on Friday hinted at the dissolution of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly if the forward bloc MPAs tried to blackmail him for ministries.

“No one can blackmail me for the ministerial posts. If someone tried to blackmail me, we will dissolve the assembly and hold the polls afresh,” asserted Imran while talking to media persons after meeting with acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Nasirul Mulk here.

Already irked by reports of corruption and nepotism in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government, Imran had recently said the PTI would prefer to sit in the opposition if the level of governance was not improved there.

He was responding to the creation of a forward bloc in the PTI Khyber Pakhtunkhwa whom he was to meet any time Friday.Imran said it was the democratic right of lawmakers to apprise him of their concerns but no one could blackmail him for a place in the provincial cabinet.

About the last year’s general election, he said today the judiciary and the media were free but the Election Commission was not. “Without free and transparent election, real democracy is impossible,” he maintained.

Those who made their way to the legislature by coercion, corruption and rigging, he continued, could never bring about a revolution or combat corruption. Regarding his meeting with the acting chief election commissioner, Imran said they had conveyed their concerns to the acting chief election commissioner and he had listened to them with patience and responded positively.

He recalled how they had been demanding verification of thumb impressions of voters in only four constituencies whereas some 70 petitions were with the election tribunals.Imran called for the initiation of criminal proceedings against the presiding officers and putting them behind the bars for involvement in rigging.

In this context, he referred to a polling station where the total numbers of registered voters was 1,500 but 8,000 votes were polled.He demanded action against such election officers under Article 6 of the Constitution for denying people their fundamental right to vote. He referred to the 2,100-page white paper his party had released showing how the returning officers and presiding officers indulged in rigging.

The PTI chief castigated the ruling PML-N and PPP for sticking to their old-fashioned policy under an underhand deal.Imran said the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government would be ready for the local bodies election by April 30, as delimitation had been completed and no one had objected to the process.

Polls open in Turkey local vote seen as referendum

ANKARA: Polls opened Sunday in Turkey for municipal elections that are seen as a referendum on the rule of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has faced anti-government protests and a major corruption scandal.

More than 50 million voters were to cast their ballots for mayors and local assemblies at almost 200,000 pollings stations, pitting Erdogan´s Islamic-rooted Justice and Development party against secular, nationalist and other groups.

The polls opened first in eastern Turkey and will open later in the west.