FAISALABAD: All necessary arrangements are being finalised to hold free and fair by-election in PP-97 in a transparent manner on July 17, 2022, said District Returning Officer (DRO) Election Commission of Pakistan Irfan Kausar here on Thursday.
Talking to the media in his office after having a meeting with Deputy Commissioner (DC) Lt. (retd) Sohail Ashraf and City Police Officer (CPO) Ali Nasir Rizvi, he said that security plan for by-election had been finalised and more than 3,000 police jawans would perform security duty on the election day. Similarly, a plan has also been shared with all stakeholders to transport election material without any delay, he added.
He said that a control room would also be set up to monitor the election activities and no one would be allowed to violate the code of conduct as well as the election rules and regulations. A media cell would also be activated in the election commission office to update reporters about the latest situation regarding by-elections.
He said that a meeting of contesting candidates of PP-97 would also be convened very soon to apprise them about the code of ethics and request them to implement it in letter and spirit. He said that teams of election commission would monitor PP-97 and now new development work would be initiated in this constituency till completion of by-election.
He said that the election rules and regulations had been provided to all contesting candidates including Sher Afghan, Muhammad Ajmal Cheema, Tariq Mehmood, Saleem Jahangir, Muhammad Luqman, Fawad Ahmad Cheema, Azad Ali Tabassum, Rizwan Liaquat, Naveed Sheikh, Ali Ahmad, Muhammad Asif Aziz, Muhammad Afzal Sahi, Waseem Akram, Muhammad Nawaz, Junaid Afzal Sahi, Fayyaz Ahmad, Sannan Jahangir, Muhammad Sohaib Aslam and they have been requested to avoid violating the election laws; otherwise, their candidature might be cancelled in addition to declaring them ineligible for elections.
He said that appeals against nomination papers would be decided on June 21 while revised list of contesting candidates would be issued on June 22, 2022.
The candidates could withdraw their papers till June 23 whereas election symbols would be allotted on June 24 and polling would be held on July 17, he added.