ISLAMABAD: The caretaker government launched an online platform to facilitate and address media complaints during the Feb 8 elections. Addressing the launch event, the caretaker information minister, Murtaza Solangi, said the application would be accessible through any browser and had been launched for the convenience of local and international journalists and media persons.

A large number of foreign journalists and observers have arrived in Pakistan to monitor and cover the election exercise. The application will help journalists lodge complaints related to coverage of election activities quickly and efficiently through their mobiles, laptops or other devices.

A Press Information Department official said that besides monitoring the application, it would also depute staff to address complaints from election observers. He said the app will function as a mediator between different departments and foreign or national journalists.

Complaints will be referred to concerned departments on priority, and the application will keep track of them until they are resolved, he assured.

Press Information Officer Tariq Mehmood said the application will eventually be made a permanent medium for resolving journalists’ complaints.

He also announced that an election cell will be set up in PID on Feb 7, a day before the general elections, which will work round the clock to facilitate journalists.

The ECP said it had completed the task of delivering 260 million ballot papers to district returning officers despite time constraints and weather-related challenges. Delivery of ballot papers has started to the respective returning officers, who have been tasked with preparing packets for delivery to the concerned presiding officers a day before polling.

In a statement, the ECP also termed various reports circulating on social media regarding the ‘results’ of postal ballots mailed by jail inmates as baseless and misleading.

The electoral watchdog clarified that returning officers open and count postal ballots in their respective constituencies in front of the candidates and their polling agents during the consolidation process. The ballot papers are later included in the final results. The ECP urged people not to pay any attention to such misleading news.