— Polling for Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly special seats will be held today and voting will be held in the Assembly Hall in Muzaffarabad.

Polling will begin at 10 a.m. and will continue till 1 p.m., Election Commission official said. Abdul Rehman Arain has previously been returned unopposed to the seat for abroad Kashmiris. Arain filed his nomination papers on Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) ticket but Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) could not field candidate against him.

Six candidates are in the race for five seats designated for women, the spokeswoman said. The PML-N had fielded four women candidates and the PPP had fielded three. However, PPP candidate Shaheen Kausar Dar has withdrawn her candidacy papers.

PPP’s Sahibzada Zulfiqar Ali and PML-N’s Barrister Iftikhar Gilani are in the running for the technocrat seat.

The spokesman for the Election Commission said that Mazhar Saeed of PML-N and Hafiz Tariq Mahmood of PPP are in the run for the seat allocated for Ulema and Mashaikh.

The Punjab government has extended the ban on flying drones in the open area across the province for another 30 days citing security concerns.

The Punjab Home Department said that the ban was enforced under Section 144(6) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898. The rule will keep the ban on the use of outdoor drones but will permit limited use of tiny drones during events in halls and marquees. It will be on to event organisers to ensure they are used safely.

Intelligence agencies and law enforcement agencies are not subject to the restriction. Drones should not be used for agricultural, irrigation and research objectives without the written consent of the “Safe Drone Usage Committee” at the district level.

The Home Department said that use of drones for the relevant objectives will be exempted from the prohibition after acquiring written approval from the committee.

Public safety, maintenance of law and order and protection of property were among the top concerns of the Punjab administration, said a spokesperson of the Home Department. Orders for tight implementation have also been issued to administrations and police around the province.

Mir Ziaullah Langau, Balochistan interior minister, has accused opposition leader in the National Assembly Mahmood Khan Achakzai of misleading the nation by not naming the terrorists behind the assaults.

Ziaullah Langau stated the conduct of not naming terrorists was an act of fear in response to the remark of Mahmood Khan Achakzai and said that a terrorist organization has already taken responsibility for the Saranan incident.

Balochistan Interior Minister stated Achakzai was misleading the public by not naming the terrorist groups due to fear of his life. “This is the kind of fear that cannot be removed from the hearts of some leaders,” he said, calling such an attitude hypocritical.

Ziaullah Langau said some leaders were taking shortcuts by putting all the blame on the administration. Leaders are terrified for their lives and that is why they are reluctant to name terrorist organisations, he said.

“The people of Balochistan were being kept in dark about the real facts and all responsibility was being shifted to the government,” he claimed. A real leader must lead the people in the field, and tell the truth’, he continued.

The interior minister of Balochistan further remarked that demonstrating the wrong route to the Pashtun people instead of telling them the facts and truth was not friendship to the Pashtuns but outright hatred to them.