'Cell phones not allowed inside polling stations'

Sindh Rangers Director General, Major General Javed Zia, said on Tuesday that keeping mobile phones inside the polling stations during the local bodies election would not be allowed in the province.
Major General Javed Zia, who is operational head of the contingent plan and the arrangements, has ensured to maintain peace and hold fair, free and transparent polls.
Addressing the newsmen at a lunch hosted by Advisor to Chief Minister for Information, Sallahuddin Haider, in the honour of Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad Khan at his office, the DG Rangers said the federal government had been requested to notify the ban on taking the cell phones inside the polling stations.
Talking about the concerns expressed by certain circles that rigging might take place inside the polling stations, Javed Zia said this step was part of the arrangements to ensure fair and free elections.
"Besides, we will install video cameras at the polling stations to monitor the situation and with this no body would dare to commit any irregularity," he said.
Outside the polling stations, there would be boundary marking while motorcycle force would be patrolling the areas besides the surveillance through the helicopter would also be maintained, he added.
The army had started patrolling since Monday while the police and angers had begun patrolling and flag march since August 11 and would continue this practice even after the polling days, he said.
He added that Karachi had been divided in three zones- Bhittai zone, Sachal zone and Abdullah Shah Ghazi zone, each headed by a DIG.
He said, in the first phase of the elections, 600 additional force of Rangers has been called to Karachi from interior of the province that would be sent back to Hyderabad later along with motorcycle force for second phase of the polls.
To a question, the DG said that 10,665 Rangers have been deployed in Karachi and 8,444 in the interior of province. The number of police force deployed in Karachi is 35,271 and 17211 in the interior of the province.
As regards sensitivity of polling stations, he said 1,513 polling stations had been categorised as 'A' and 1850 as 'B' in Karachi and 535 as 'A' and 2680 as 'B' in interior of Sindh, he said.
The DG Rangers said that the Corps Commander, accompanied by Election Commission officials, also visited various polling stations and was briefed on polling arrangements, on Tuesday.