ECP prods caretakers to ensure level playing field for all

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday instructed all caretaker governments to ensure a level playing field for all political parties in the upcoming general polls.

Taking cognisance of a political party's complaint of not providing a level playing field, the commission has sent an urgent letter to caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar and chief secretaries of the provinces.

The letter read that a political party had complained that it was not being given a level playing field and it had been unable to run its election campaign with its supporters, apparently referring to the PTI, which had been in trouble in recent times.

The ECP added in the letter that caretaker governments were bound by the Constitution to give equal opportunities to all political parties without any discrimination to run their electoral campaigns.

The Sindh caretaker government has received the letter through its chief secretary.

Earlier this month, President Dr Arif Alvi conveyed the concerns of the PTI to the interim premier about the erosion of fundamental rights and the need for a level playing field for all political parties in the run-up to the general elections scheduled for February 8, 2024.

Dr Alvi, in a formal communication to the caretaker premier, also forwarded a letter addressed to him by PTI’s Omar Ayub Khan that detailed the party's apprehensions and grievances.

The PTI leader’s letter, conveyed to the interim PM by the president, raised concerns over several issues.
These concerns encompassed the erosion of fundamental rights, including enforced disappearances, forced conversions of political loyalties, absence of a level playing field for major political parties, a perceived crackdown on media, and mistreatment of female political activists through prolonged illegal detentions.

In response, the interim government and the ECP threw shade at the president, expressing strong discontent with the latter for rallying behind the PTI’s concerns over a level playing field and “attempting” to make the electoral process "suspicious".

Dr Alvi, who is affiliated with the PTI, is frequently accused of displaying partiality to his party.

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Berating Dr Alvi for advocating the PTI’s line, caretaker Federal Information Minister Murtaza Solangi said the whole nation wanted the president to play his role as the symbol of the federation and not give an impression that he was the spokesperson for a party.

On the other hand, the ECP sounded alarms over what it termed “an attempt to make the transparency of the upcoming elections suspicious”.

“An attempt is being made by a high official to make the transparency of the upcoming election suspicious,” an ECP spokesperson maintained in a statement. “This behaviour is not appropriate,” the spokesperson added.
Separately, the ECP appointed 32 regional election commissioners as regional monitoring coordinators (RMCs) for the next general elections.

According to an ECP spokesperson, they underwent a one-day online training workshop covering the surveillance framework and set-up of the monitoring rooms.

The training workshop focused on the commission’s surveillance framework at the provincial, divisional and district levels.

The regional coordinators will oversee divisional monitoring and guide teams in their districts. After this training, they will impart these skills to district monitoring officers and teams.

The commission will set up four-tier monitoring control rooms, with the RMCs working under the Central Monitoring Control Centre in Islamabad. Any code of conduct violations during the elections will lead to legal action.

The RMCs also underwent a two-day training session at the ECP Secretariat in Islamabad two months ago.

(With input from APP)