Junior Pak EC official to attend intl conference on voter

Indo-Pak tensions have apparently forced the Election Commission of Pakistan to withdraw the participation of one of its members and scale down the representation to a junior official to atend an international seminar on voter awareness beginning Wednesday.
Justice (retd) Shakeel Ahmed Baloch, Member (Balochistan), Election Commission of Pakistan, was to attend the two-day conference beginning October 19. But Deputy Election Commissioner Umesh Sinha said in the evening that, "Pakistan has not confirmed participation."
He said the invites were sent online some three months back and election bodies were asked to register their participation online.
"There is no confirmation by Pakistan," Sinha said. The conference starts Wednesday morning for which most of the participants have already arrived.

Later, official spokesperson of the Election Commission said the poll panel has received confirmation that Altaf Ahmed, Director (PR and Political Finance)) from the Election Commission of Pakistan will be attending the conference.