ISLAMABAD  -  Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Raja Sultan has in­structed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to provide security to Jami­at-e-Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) elec­tion rallies amid threat reports.

The development comes as in­terior ministry had warned that there were serious threats to the lives of JUI-F chief Maulana Fa­zlur Rehman and Awami National Party (ANP) provincial president Aimal Wali Khan. In a letter to the chief secretaries and inspector general of police of all provinces and circulated by the ANP, the in­terior ministry had said it had re­ceived reports from reliable sourc­es revealing serious threats to the lives of the Maulana and Aimal.

“It is requested that extreme caution and vigilance is exercised and necessary security arrange­ments are made at Maulana Fazl and Aimal’s residences and dur­ing movement and public gath­erings to avert any untoward incident,” it said in a letter. Mean­while, JUI-F leader Maulana Hafiz Waqas submitted an application in election commission, seeking security for party workers and rallies ahead of general elections. Responding to the application, CEC Sikandar Raja Sultan direct­ed the KP IG to make necessary security arrangements at JUI-F election rallies. “Law and order should be maintained in the elec­tion campaign”, he added.

It is pertinent to mention here that the JUI-F’s chief convoy was targeted in a brazen attack at the Yarik Interchange in Dera Ismail Khan. KP police said vehicles part of Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s con­voy went to Yarak area for refuel­ing when the incident occurred, but the politician was not present on the spot. Pakistan has seen an uptick in terror activities, especial­ly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan, after the out­lawed Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) ended its ceasefire with the government in November. Fazl has called on the caretaker govern­ment and the Election Commis­sion of Pakistan (ECP) to ensure the law and order situation, stress­ing that it wasn’t the right time to be holding the general elections.