The Interior Ministry, in a letter to the election commission secretary, said that the security forces were busy guarding the borders of the country and dealing with internal challenges and their deployment for the by-elections of the national and provincial assemblies was not possible, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Thursday.

“The country is passing through a tough security situation due to the recent incidents of terrorism. It is facing multifaceted security threats. It is necessary to provide security to the important installations and foreign nationals in the country. There are security threats from extremists and non-state actors,” the text of the letter reads.

“The National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) and intelligence agencies are periodically issuing threat alerts. A few incidents of terrorism have taken place in recent days in which precious human lives were lost. The security forces are engaged in dealing with the threat of terrorism,” it added.

“The security forces are engaged in maintaining law and order in the country and protecting the lives and property of the people. The law enforcement agencies are fully engaged [in security duties] due to the terrorist incidents. It is difficult for the law enforcement agencies to spare time for other activities,” it stated.

“The terrorist organisations threatened the leaders of the political parties. It is feared that important political figures and public gatherings may be targeted during the election campaign. The issue of providing security personnel for the by-elections was taken up with the General Headquarters (GHQ),” he maintained.

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“We were told that the army and the civil armed forces are engaged in border security. The army and the civil armed forces are busy dealing with internal challenges due to terrorism threats,” it continued.

“The GHQ says that the forces are to be deployed for census. The deployment of security personnel for the elections of the national and provincial assemblies is not practicable,” the letter stated.

“The deployment of the security personnel outside sensitive and non-sensitive polling stations will not be possible,” it added.

Reporter: Awais Kiyani