Caretaker Punjab Chief Minister Najam Sethi has said that solid steps have been taken by the provincial government to ensure conduct of general elections in a free, fair, transparent and peaceful manner.

He said that the most modern election information system of the world has been evolved in Punjab through which the electoral process including implementation of the code of conduct is being monitored.

He was talking to a 6-member delegation of newsmen from different countries who met him at Chief Minister’s Secretariat.He said that Punjab Election Information Center has been established at the Civil Secretariat.

He said that any citizen can register his complaint at Election Information Center at hotline 8070 regarding violation of the code of conduct and immediate notice is taken of such complaints.

He said that in view of national and international scenario, security arrangements have been further tightened across the province to ensure peaceful conduct of elections.

Najam Sethi said that the modern election information system will help in the holding of free and fair elections.He said that a hotline has also been set up for the benefit of the citizens who can lodge their complaints about the elections process.

He said that at the receipt of any complaint at the Election Information Center regarding violation of the code of conduct or any other irregularity, immediate instructions are issued to concerned authorities for dealing with the matter and the whole process from the registration of the complaint to solution of problem is linked with the modern computerised system and the concerned citizen is also informed when his complaint is addressed.

Najam Sethi said that a mechanism has also been evolved for taking action against the persons who fail to take immediate action on any complaint.
He said that a peaceful atmosphere will be ensured at general elections to enable the voters to exercise their right of franchise without any fear.

He said that due to the vibrant role of media, the world has assumed the form of a global village and an incident taking place in any part of the world is immediately known to the people across the world.

He said that the role of media has assumed greater significance in the background of elections in the country. The delegation highly appreciated the arrangements made by the Punjab government for holding of transparent elections and the modern information system developed for monitoring this process.

The delegation included head of German Press Federation Dr. Christan Zarm, correspondent of the world’s oldest newspaper, Vienna Newspaper Shams-ul-Haq, foreign correspondent of N-TV Nadeja Krewald, freelance journalist Robin Ruehling, correspondent of a leading newspaper of Germany Suddeutsche Zeitung, Arne Perras and head of International Political Desk of Australian newspaper Kleinezeitung, Ingo Hasewend.

Meanwhile, Najam Sethi has taken notice of the violence against workers of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) in Toba Tek Singh on Sunday and sought a report from Inspector General Police Punjab. The Chief Minister also directed to take immediate action against the persons involved in the incident.