RAWALPINDI: District Returning Officer Dr Hassan Waqar Cheema on Sunday sought additional police force for the security of election staff and returning officers involved in scrutiny of nomination papers, which starts from Monday (today).

The district returning officer wrote a letter to the city police officer on Sunday, seeking deployment of additional police force in the offices of the election staff to maintain law and order.

The scrutiny of nomination papers will be held from Dec 25 to Dec 30 and the returning officer will reject or accept the nomination papers during this period. The appeals against the decision of returning officers will be filed from Jan 3 to Jan 10.

Though the process of submission of nomination papers completed on Sunday peacefully, extra security measures are still needed to avoid any untoward incident.

A senior official of the district told Dawn that there were chances of clash between political rivals and police help was necessary to maintain law and order.

He said in the past some incidents of violence were reported during the scrutiny of the nomination papers, adding that after police deployment in and outside the offices of the returning officers, people would not gather unnecessarily.

Meanwhile, District Intelligence Committee met in the office of the deputy commissioner to review arrangements for the scrutiny of nomination papers and security of churches.