Altaf Hamid Rao.
MIRPUR (AJK), (Parliament Times) : In the 3rd and last phase of the Azad Jammu Kashmir Local Bodies elections, all is set for holding the polling in all three districts of Mirpur Division including Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimbher on Dec. 08 ~ Thursday in free, fair and peaceful environment.
Our Special AJK Correspondent Altaf Hamid Rao reports from Mirpur that in all three districts of Mirpur division including Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimbher districts, a total of 12 lakh, 32 thousand and 79 registered voters will go to exercise their right of franchise to elect the local bodies representatives of their respective choice in the 3rd phase of the polls on December 08.These registered voters include 5,63,016 in Kotli duistrict, 36, 6043 in Mirpur district and 30, 3020 registered voters in Bhimbher district.
A total of 1026 polling stations are being set up in Kotli district, 625 in Mirpur district and 538 in Bhimbher district respectively with 1602, 924 and 850 polling booths in the three above districts respectively to facilitate both male and female registered voters to use their right of vote to elect their civic bodies members, he added.
A total of 10500 civil armed forces troops including 4400 AJK police COPs , 1910 Punjab police constables, , 3000 Frontier constabulary (FC) jawans, 1200 Pakistan Rangers personnel would be deputed on the special duty at a total of 2188 polling stations set up in all three districts of Mirpur division. The polling stations included 874 extremely sensitive, 803 sensative and 511 normal police stations – separately for both genders – the registered male and female voters.
This was disclosed in a high level meeting of the AJK police and Mirpur division and all three districts administrations held at the Div. Commissioner office here late Tuesday with Azad Jammu Kashmir Inspector General Police Dr. Amir Sheikh in the Chair.
The meeting was attended among others by Additional IGP AJK, DIG Mirpur Div. Commissioner Mirpur Division, Deputy Commissioners of all three districts, SSP Mirpur, Whereas SPs of Bhimbher and Kotli participated through video links besides other senior officials of the Divisional and Districts administrations.
An AJK Police spokesperson later told this Correspondent here on Wednesday that in order to ensure the holding of the polling in absolutely free, fair and peaceful environment, Mirpur division has been divided into 21 zones comprising 234 sector. SSPs and SPs will head each zone with the fully-alerted COPs.
A Central Control Room at Mirpur Divisional HQ will monitor whole of the law and order situation during polling on all three districts of Mirpur, Kotli and Bhimbher. The District level Control Rooms in all three districts have also been established in all three district, the spokesperson said.
A special high level AJK Police Monitoring team headed by Additional IGP has been deputed to monitor the entire law and order situation during the electoral process simultaneously in all three districts of Mirpur division.
At the same time the Central Divisional HQ Control Room has starting monitoring of the trend and the fake news on the social media related to the elections process and the related matters, according to the spokesperson.
The meeting offered fateha for the rest of the departed soul of Additional Special Home Secretary of Azad Jammu Kashmir Govt. Hameed Mughal, in eternal peace and grant of fortitude to the bereaved family to bear the irreparable loss with courage. Hameed Mughal, a senior officer of AJK Administration Service had died of cardiac arrest in Muzaffarabad on Tuesday.
The LB elections in Azad Jammu Kashmir State are being held on political party-basis. However, independent candidates are also in run to contest the polls to get into the civic bodies of all categories across the liberated territory.
The civic polls in Azad Jammu Kashmir are being held in three phases under the auspices of Azad Jammu Kashmir Election Commission with the coordination of the judiciary in a free, fair and transparent manner in collaboration of the security institutions including the civil armed forces, local civil law enforcement authorities.
Senior Member AJK Election Commission Raja Muhammad Farooq Niaz, meanwhile told our Special AJK Correspondent Altaf Hamid Rao that Pakistan army shall also be available as quick response force to combat any eventuality during the scheduled December 08 3rd and last phase of the polls in Mirpur Division.
Adequate arrangements were being given final touches for holding of the LB polls in AJK in due free, fair and transparent manner after a long pause of over three decades.
In Mirpur districts, registered voters will go to the polls to elect their representatives for a total of 306-seats local bodies institutions including 27-seat District Council, 46-seat Municipal Corporatio n, 202 seats of a total of 27 union councils and 31 seats of three Municipal Committees including those of Islamgarh, Chaksawari and Dadayal.
It may be mentioned that in first and 2nd phases, the local bodies elections have been held in Muzaffarabad and Poonch divisions respectively on November 27 and December 03, in free, fair and peaceful manner.Polling will start at 8.00 a.m in the morning and will continue till 5.00 p.m without any pause.
The registered voters to be presented in the premises of the polling stations after passing of the stipulated last time deadline, will also be able to use their right of vote.