Electioneering: ECP bans political ads at expense of public purse

Says promoting party interests at the expense of public exchequer is against the norm of a ‘level playing field’.

ISLAMABAD:

In an unprecedented move, election authorities have imposed a complete ban on all politically motivated advertisements in print and electronic media at the expense of public exchequer.

“The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has imposed a complete ban on advertisements in the print or electronic media which either bear any political party’s logo, name or images of political party leaders, or promote any political party or candidate in any other way… directives have been issued to the federal and provincial governments to ensure its implementation in letter and spirit,” read an official handout issued here on Friday.

According to the statement, the ECP ‘noted with concern’ that as the elections draw closer, there are frequent advertisements appearing in both print and electronic media highlighting the achievements of the incumbent federal and provincial governments. These advertisements, replete with party symbols and images of their leaders, are being used as promotion for the upcoming elections, it added.

“Such advertisements should not be promoting party interests at the expense of public money and thus are 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,” the commission noted in the handout.

The commission cited paragraph 47 of the Supreme Court’s judgment of Workers Party Pakistan’s 2011 petition, which states that ECP is fully empowered to do all that is necessary to fulfill its constitutional mandate, to clarify its legal authority of enforcing the ban.



High-level reshuffles

In another significant development, the ECP has reshuffled its top bureaucracy by transferring and appointing new provincial election commissioners.

Provincial election commissioners are grade 21 employees of the ECP and their transfers are made through simple notification by the commission.

Punjab election commissioner Mehboob Anwar who was earlier given additional charge of supervising the re-verification of voters’ list and delimitations in Karachi has been posted as Sindh election commissioner. Tariq Qadri, who was serving as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) provincial commissioner, takes over as Punjab election commissioner from Anwar.

ECP sources say Anwar will continue to perform his duties in Sindh till completion of the two tasks assigned to him. After that, he will be transferred back to Punjab while Qadri will be transferred to ECP headquarters.

Sonu Khan Baloch, who was removed as Sindh provincial election commissioner after some parties accused him of bias towards a particular party in Karachi, has been appointed in Qadri’s place as K-P election commissioner.

Sonu had been called back to ECP headquarters in Islamabad and was appointed the director general of the budget. An ECP official said Sonu has extensive experience in administrative matters while his current office could have been performed by anyone in the commission. He added that Sonu was removed as Sindh election commissioner merely on the basis of complaints by some parties and that those charges have not been proved.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 5^th, 2013.