PS-93 Karachi presiding officer arrested over electoral malpractice

KARACHI: Police on Monday arrested a presiding officer assigned for election duty at PS-93 constituency for electoral malpractice, ahead of the nationwide polls on July 25.

According to police authorities, the presiding officer named Waheedullah sent another person to substitute him for election duty.

The presiding officer was arrested on the orders of the Returning Officer, police said. The other suspect, named Zubair, fled.

Arrest warrants issued for PS-107 Section Officer 

Earlier today, an arrest warrant was issued for Section Officer for Karachi's PS-107 constituency after he failed to turn up for election-related duty despite repeated reminders. 

Section Officer Treasury Department Ghulam Hussain Bhagio also failed to respond to a show cause notice, after which his arrest warrant was ordered, said the returning officer for the said constituency.

On Saturday, six polling officers were arrested in the Sanghar and Sehwan districts of Sindh after they were caught trying to open postal ballot papers. The arrested officers included assistant returning officer (ARO) Qurban Ali Memon, Muhammad Saleh a clerk at the local tehsil office, senior clerk Abid Ali, junior clerk Mohammad Aslam, and two teachers Ghulam Mustafa Solangi and Abdul Aziz.

As many as 1.6 million electoral staff are to be on duty on the election day, the Election Commission has said.

449,465 policemen will be deployed on July 25, out of which 202,100 will be posted in Punjab and Islamabad while 100,500 policemen will be stationed in Sindh. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 87,269 policemen will be on duty.

There will also be 300,071 army personnel deployed across the country.