Provincial Election Commissioner (PEC), Administers Oath To District Returning Officers (DROs) In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Provincial Election Commissioner (PEC), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pir Maqbool administered oath to the District Returning Officers (DROs) under section 56 of Election Act 2017, which is for the first time in the history of the country here at a special ceremony on Tuesday.

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 15th May, 2018 ) :Provincial Election Commissioner (PEC), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pir Maqbool administered oath to the District Returning Officers (DROs) under section 56 of Election Act 2017, which is for the first time in the history of the country here at a special ceremony on Tuesday.

The oath taking ceremony was attended by additional secretary election commission Zafar Iqbal Hussain, director election commission Shahzad Ahmed, Director Gender Affairs Muhammad Haroon Shinwari.

Addressing the oath taking ceremony and one-day training workshop of DROs, Member Election KP Justice Irshad Qaisar said election commission is a constitutional and autonomous body to hold polls in fair and transparent manner up to the expectations of voters.

She said that upcoming elections were of paramount importance for the stability and future of the country. She said fair, transparent and impartial, independent elections were a constitutional responsibility of the commission and the role of DROs in ensuring fairness of election was very important.

Election Act 2017 was an important step towards electoral reforms that made the election commission more authoritative. Justice Irshad maintained that to ensure peaceful conduct of polls, the DROs and ROs had been inducted from the judiciary under the election act 2017 which was reflective of the people's confidence in the judiciary.

Speaking on the occasion, the PEC Pir Maqbool Ahmed said the commission was ready for the smooth and peaceful conduct of elections in the country. He said that all arrangements have been finalized and elections materials have already dispatched to the PEC office.

The PEC said that great responsibility laid on the shoulder of the DROs for ensuring smooth and fair and transparent elections. He informed that no decision has been taken yet about the use of biometric system in the upcoming elections.The result management system would be enforced for which proper training would be provided to the staff, he added.

Pir Maqbool further said that re-elections would be held in the Constituencies or at the polling station where turn out of the women voters would be less than 10 percent.He expressed the hoped that election commission would come up to the expectation of voters in the smooth sailing of electoral process as the entire nation had pinned their hopes on the upcoming elections process.

Referring to the DROs, she said preparation of list of polling stations, deployment of polling staff would now be done under the supervision of DROs. Moreover, they would also look after the security matters. It merits to mention here that the Election Commission had issued the proclamation of appointment of 25 District Session Judges in KP and Political Agents as DROs for the FATA.