Brother’s Helping Hand: Stay away from polls, court tells CCPO

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court on Tuesday restrained capital city police officer (CCPO) Chaudhry Shafiq from alleged use of state machinery in favour of his brother contesting by-election from PP-161, Lahore.

The court passed this order on a writ petition of Khalid Mahmood, a candidate of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf from the constituency. Petitioner’s counsel Sardar Akbar Dogar alleged that the CCPO Shafiq had been influencing the voters to secure a victory for his brother Chaudhry Gulzar Gujjar, a candidate of the PML-N.

The counsel requested the court to direct the election commission to transfer the CCPO so that the by-election in the constituency could be held in a fair and transparent manner. The court after hearing the initial arguments sought a reply from the ECP till Aug 13 and restrained the CCPO from interfering in the election process.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 7^th, 2013.