Electoral body has accused KP government of “miserably failing” to maintain law and order during the recently held local government elections, announcing to engage military troops for second phase of LG polls and re-polling at certain polling stations under the first phase.

The contingency plan that KP government provided to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) ahead of LG polls did not show any deployment of police personnel for law and order/security purposes during LG polls, the electoral body said on Wednesday.

Inspector general police and chief secretary KP assured the ECP that eight Frontier Constabulary/ KP Police personnel would be deployed at every polling station but only two to three police personnel were deployed at each polling station, the electoral body said in a statement.

The ECP said it has written a letter to Defence Ministry for the deployment of military in second phase of LG polls and at certain polling stations where re-polling would be held under first phase.

On December 19, LG elections for village/neighbourhood and tehsil/city councils were held in Peshawar, Buner, Bajaur, Mardan, Swabi, Nowshera, Kohat, Karak, Dera Ismail Khan, Bannu, Tank, Haripur, Khyber, Mohmand, Charsadda, Hangu and Lakki Marwat.

The polls saw several incidents of widespread violence as the ECP was categorically criticised by political and public circles for its failure to ensure peaceful polls.

The second phase of village/neighbourhood and tehsil/city council elections was scheduled on the coming January 16 but it has been revised to the coming March 27. The ECP recently took this decision on a petition by Murtaza Abbasi from Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) who moved electoral body for delaying the LG polls on account of heavy snowfall in parts of KP.

The 18 districts where LG elections are scheduled on March 27 are: Swat, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Upper Chitral, Lower Chitral, Shangla, Malakand, Kurram, Orakzai, Abbottabad, Battagram, Kolai Pallas, Mansehra, Torghar, Upper Kohistan, Lower Kohistan, North Waziristan and South Waziristan.

This story was first published in Business Recorder on Jan 6, 2022.