Level playing field: Kissan package hits roadblock

ECP seeks assurance the package will not be used to influence voters in LG polls

ISLAMABAD: Peasants might not reap benefits of a recently announced multibillion-rupee relief package this year, as the top poll supervisory body on Tuesday sought an assurance from the government that the package would not be used to influence voters in the upcoming local government elections.

Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and some other opposition groups had approached the Election Commission of Pakistan, saying the government has announced the Kissan package in a bid to influence the LG polls in Sindh and Punjab in favour of the ruling PML-N at the expense of public money.

On September 15, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had unveiled the Rs341billion  package for peasants, who had been calling for relief to ameliorate their deteriorating economic condition due to rising costs of inputs.

The move had come following a string of protests by farmers’ bodies in Lahore and other cities against ‘the government’s apathy’ towards their issues. Some political parties, including the PPP, backed their demands. The government attempted to stop burgeoning discontentment in the rural communities that constitutes the bulk of our population through the Kissan package.

The opposition parties questioned the timing and motives of the package. They alleged that the government was spending millions of rupees from the national kitty on advertising this package to influence voters.

After week-long internal deliberations, the ECP on Tuesday asked the relevant ministries to submit details of how the package would be dispensed. It issued notices to two secretaries – the top bureaucrats of the ministries of food security and information – asking them to submit the records relevant to the package.

“The government would have to prove that it is a national package and would not be used in any way to influence voters in the LG elections,” ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob told reporters.

He said the food ministry’s secretary has been asked to submit details of the package, including intent of the package and its dispensation process. “Ministry of information’s secretary has been asked to provide details of advertisements being released to the print and electronic media about this package,” he added.

He vowed that the ECP wanted to make sure that the code of conduct for elections was adhered to. Providing a level playing field for all the contestants is a basic component of these rules.

According to sources in the ECP, once the ECP analyses the government response, it might issue a stay order on implementation of the package till the LG polls process completes in Punjab and Sindh in December this year.

Directives to PEMRA

Meanwhile, the ECP also wrote a letter to Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) chairman, directing him to make sure that a level playing field is provided to all the stakeholders in the media for their election campaigns.

“Utmost vigilance be shown to monitor advertisements and campaign material financed by political parties and contesting candidates running on electronic media.

“PEMRA should also ensure that balanced coverage is being provided to all political parties and contesting candidates and reporting/analysis shown on channels are not titled or biased in favour of or against a particular political party or candidate,” reads the ECP letter.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 23^rd, 2015.