PESHAWAR
During the local body elections held in the provincial capital and other 16 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) voters violated coronavirus SOPs in the presence of police and other district administration officials.
It has been observed that Covid-19 protocols were not followed during the polling, most of the people visited political parties camps and polling stations established by the ECP without wearing masks.
The police who had claimed that strict action would be taken on SOPs violation did not make arrangements in this regard.
The workers of all major political parties gathered outside the polling stations, assembling at the election camps without observing social distancing.
The situation related to virus SOPs in the inner city was very dangerous as a large number of people were sitting outside the polling station after polling votes.
Neither the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) nor the provincial government deemed it necessary to make available sanitizers inside the polling stations for election staff and other agents of political parties.
The use of thermal gun use in almost all polling stations of Peshawar was tantamount to nothing as gates of almost all polling stations were made to allow without any inspection of people temperature.
Interestingly, the police in the provincial capital did not take any action against those who openly flouted SOPs inside and outside the polling stations. Senior officers of the police visited various polling stations to inspect the security measures in Peshawar. But none of the officers instructed the police on duty for maintaining coronavirus SOPs. The overall situation that was observed in the polling station and social interaction of people could lead to virus spread to Covid-19 spread in Peshawar. It is pertinent to mention here that Peshawar has been and still the hub of Covid-19 cases.
According to the health department’s latest data shared with media on Sunday, Peshawar remains on top position in relation to virus cases.
During the last 24 hours 19 cases of coronavirus were reported in Peshawar. The provincial capital also reported two deaths from the virus in the same period of time.
