ISLAMABAD: The federal cabinet on Tuesday approved the deployment of Pakistan Army troops in sensitive constituencies and polling stations across the country, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said, as the South Asian country gears up for national polls scheduled to take place on Feb. 8. 

Pakistan’s interior ministry sought the cabinet’s approval this week for the deployment of army troops across polling stations and in sensitive constituencies on polling day, local media had widely reported.

Pakistan’s election regulator last month also sought the deployment of army troops inside polling stations on Feb. 8, saying that there was a shortfall of police personnel across the country to maintain law and order during polls. 

“The federal cabinet has approved, on the recommendations of the interior ministry, the deployment of Pakistan Army and Civil Armed Forces personnel for the peaceful conduct of elections,” the PMO statement said, following a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar. 

“These contingents will perform their duties in sensitive constituencies and polling stations and would also operate as a Rapid Response Force.”

The South Asian country heads to the polls as it faces overlapping security, economic, political and security crises. Pakistan has seen a surge in militant attacks in its western provinces bordering Afghanistan since November 2022, when a fragile truce between the Pakistani Taliban and the state broke down. Political parties and security analysts have expressed fears of polls being marred by pre-election violence. 

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has established 92,353 polling stations across the country for general elections, In Pakistan, polling booths are usually marked sensitive in areas with a record of militant or other types of violence. The ECP announced this week it has categorized over 17,500 polling stations as “highly sensitive,” 32,508 as “sensitive,” and 42,500 as “normal.”

Pakistani election candidates suffering attacks this month by unidentified assailants. An independent election candidate was shot dead with two others on Jan. 10 in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province. A former minister of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, Aslam Buledi, was critically injured after unidentified gunmen targeted him in the southwestern Turbat district on the same day. 

The situation is particularly difficult for politicians contesting from KP, where a workers’ convention of the Jamiat-e-Ulama-e-Islam (JUI-F) party was attacked last year.