The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Friday served notices to Cabinet Division and Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) against issuance of notices to Prime Minister Imran Khan and federal minister Asad Umar regarding participation in local body elections campaign.
Justice Aamer Farooq of IHC heard the case pertaining to the above matter. Imran Khan’s lawyer Barrister Ali Zafar appeared before the court and adopted the stance that the code of conduct of ECP couldn’t be higher than the law. Under the procedure the ECP supposed to constitute a monitoring team to check out any violation, he said.
He said that if a party or any candidate violate the rules or election act then a fine worth Rs50,000 could be imposed. The public office holders had been given permission to participate in election campaigns through an amendment in the act, he said. But the ECP still issued an order on March 10, stopping the public office holders from election campaigns while the notices were issued on alleged violation of code of conduct. The lawyer said that the ECP had stated that only a member Parliament had the privilege to participate the election campaigns. Justice Farooq remarked that the Article 218 of the constitution authorized the ECP to conduct fair elections. Whether this power could be curtailed with an amendment through an ordinance, he questioned.
