ECP bans political advertisements funded by tax payers’ money in media

Election commission says political advertisements should not promote party interests at expense of public money.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Friday imposed a complete ban on the print and electronic media directly or indirectly promoting any political party or candidate by carrying their logos or images in advertisements funded by public money, said a press release on Friday.

The ECP issued the directives to the federal and provincial governments to ensure its implementation.

The election commission noted that advertisements of political parties were frequently appearing in the print and electronic media which were meant to highlight the achievements of the incumbent federal and provincial governments.

The advertisements with party symbols and images of party leaders are being used to promote political parties, noted the press release.

The notification maintained that such advertisements should not be promoting party interests at the expense of public money and termed them against the norm of “level-playing field”, which cannot be allowed to continue as it would amount to misuse of the resources from the public exchequer for their own self-interest.