By-elections: PTI to challenge ECP’s code of conduct

Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) provincial organiser Chaudhary Muhammad Sarwar announced on Sunday that the party would challenge the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) recent code of conduct for by-elections which barred public representatives from campaigning for candidates.


He said democracy would be damaged if public representatives were barred from campaigning for candidates in the forthcoming elections. “Only the prime minister, chief ministers and sitting ministers should be barred from campaigning as they could regulate public funds,” he said. He said they could use this power to indulge in electoral malpractice. Sarwar said opposition lawmakers should be allowed to campaign as they did not have this power. He said the PTI was only contesting the polls under the oversight of the ECP due to its faith in democracy. Sarwar said the party’s support for democracy should not be construed as a weakness. Sarwar claimed that some relatives of IGP Mushtaq Sukhera were contesting the polls from the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N’s) platform. “How can police be expected to remain impartial and effectively discharge its duties in such a scenario,” he said. Sarwar said investigations into the killing of Ghaffar Gujjar of the PTI would remain bereft of credibility without the inclusion of antiterrorism clauses in the charges. The former governor said police was firmly in the government’s orbit. He said the department had been victimising PTI candidates instead of nabbing extortionists and hit men.