ISLAMABAD (APP) - Caretaker Federal Minister for Information, Broadcasting and Parliamentary Affairs Murtaza Solangi said on Tuesday that on Feb 8 more than 120 million Pakistanis would cast their votes to elect public representatives of their choice to run the affairs of the state as envisaged in the Constitution.
Addressing a press conference along with Minister for Interior Gohar Ijaz, he said that last year on Aug17, 2023, after oath-taking of the caretaker cabinet, he had committed in a press conference that the caretaker government would provide all possible assistance to the Election Commission of Pakistan to conduct free and fair elections.
Information Minister Solangi said rumour-mongers’ claims that elections would not be held on one or the other pretext and caretaker setup would linger on had proven wrong.
The minister said the Ministry of Information had launched an online media helpline for the convenience of local and foreign journalists during the elections.
He said the Pakistani nation had been fighting the scourge of terrorism for decades and between 2008 and 2013, law and order situation was not good. The 2008 elections had to be postponed for one month following the martyrdom of Benazir Bhutto, he recalled.
He said a few incidents of terrorism could not deter the masses who would come out to use their right of vote in a large numbers.
Gohar Ejaz
Minister for Interior Gohar Ejaz said 90,777 polling stations had been established nationwide. Of these, 44,000 polling stations had been declared normal, 29,985 sensitive and 16,766 highly sensitive.
He said each polling station would have deployment of seven to eight security personnel on average. He said around 650,000 security personnel had been deployed on the ground to ensure the security of the voters.