PESHAWAR: Election Commission of Pakistan has issued notices to several leaders of Jamaat-i-Islami including its chief Sirajul Haq for violating code of conduct during second phase of local bodies’ elections in 18 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Other JI leaders, who were issued notices, included its provincial president Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, MPA Inayatullah Khan and candidate of the party for Barawal tehsil council, Jahan Alam.

The district monitoring officer of Malakand, Ziaur Rehman, also issued third notice to PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to appear before him on March 29 to explain his position regarding violation of code of conduct. The DMO has already issued him two notices but he didn’t turn up.

DIR Upper DMO Sarmad Hassan has issued these notices to the JI leaders for holding a public rally at a stadium and violating code of conduct for the polls.

Malakand DMO serves third notice on Bilawal to appear before him

“It has been brought into the notice of the undersigned (DMO) through monitoring teams and media that you have participated/addressed a public gathering at a stadium in Dir Upper on March 26 which is in violation of the code of conduct,” states the notice issued to JI chief Sirajul Haq.

The notice asked him to appear in person or through counsel on March 28 (today) before the DMO to explain his position for violating code of conduct.

It said that if the JI chief didn’t appear before the DMO or submit written reply by today (Monday), it would be presumed that he had nothing in defence and the matter should be dealt with and decided under the relevant laws/rules and available record in his absence.

The Dir Upper DMO has also served notices on JI provincial chief Senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, MPA Inayatullah Khan and JI candidate Jahan Alam for addressing the same public rally. They have been directed to appear before the DMO on March 28.

Similarly, Kolai-Pallas Kohistan DMO Wajid Ali also served notices on PTI MNA Saleh Mohammad Khan Swati, MPA Mufti Obaidur Rehman, MPA Abdul Ghaffar and PTI candidate for Bataira tehsil council Mohammad Iqbal for using state resources in the election campaign.

The DMO has directed them to appear in person or through counsel to clarify their position before him on March 28.

Meanwhile, the district monitoring officer of Mansehra has referred several cases of code of conduct violation to Election Commission of Pakistan for onward proceeding.

Those whose cases were referred to ECP include candidate for Mansehra tehsil council Kamal Saleem Swati, candidate for Balakot tehsil council Mohammad Mushtaq and candidate for Baffa tehsil council Abdul Shakoor Laghmani.

The DMO had directed them to appear on Sunday to clarify their position for violating code of conduct, an official of the provincial ECP said.

However, none of them appeared as per schedule issued by the DMO. So the DMO, under section 234(3) of Elections Act 2017, referred their cases to ECP for taking action against them.

Published in Dawn, March 28th, 2022