Islamabad (Staff Report): The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has sent a summery, recommending to hold upcoming general polls between July 25 and July 27.
The summary forwarded to President Mamnoon Hussain has outlined details for fixing date for the general elections 2018 in the summary. It has requested the President of Pakistan to settle a date between July 25 and July 27 under Section 57(1) of the Elections Action Act 2017.
The tenure of the current government will expire on May 31. The process to select a caretaker set-up is under way with Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi holding talks with Leader of Opposition Khurshid Shah.
Meanwhile, ECP has reviewed preparations for the general elections. It directed provincial chief secretaries to ensure security of returning officers and polling staff. While district returning officers (DROs) and returning officers (ROs) have been appointed mostly from the lower judiciary, the assistant returning officers (AROs) were selected from civil bureaucracy – mainly the district administration group officers.
As per the polling scheme announced by the ECP, as many as 86,436 polling stations will be set up for the elections, including 48,667 in Punjab and 18,647 in Sindh. In Fata and K-P, 14,655 polling stations will be established and 4,467 in Balochistan.
