Taking notice of Imran Khan’s speech at Bahawalpur on Saturday where he criticised Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) decided to examine content of the speech to determine whether Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief had violated elections code of conduct.
A senior official of ECP said that commission was likely to review the contents of the speech in the next meeting to be held on Tuesday. The official said that entire speech would be put before the five-member commission headed by Chief Election Commissioner Fakhruddin G Ebrahim to evaluate whether Imran Khan had violated elections code of conduct issued by the commission.
The ECP had directed all contesting candidates to desist from hurling accusations at each other during the election campaigning.
The ECP had issued the directions after the complaint of presidential spokesman who had requested the election watchdog to take action against some political parties, mainly PML-N, for criticising President Asif Ali Zardari during the ongoing election campaign.
ECP had directed all parties to refrain from personal criticism.
“The political parties, contesting candidates and their supporters shall refrain from deliberate dissemination of false and malicious information and shall not indulge in forgeries and disinformation to defame other political parties/leaders. The use of abusive language against the leaders and candidates shall be avoided at all costs,” the directive read.
Complaints regarding establishment of polling stations
A spokesman of the ECP said on Saturday that in its meeting the commission had taken into consideration complaints regarding establishment of polling stations at wrong locations, adding that all such complaints had been redirected to provincial election commissioners so they could issue further order returning officers.
The commission has further directed that all provincial election commissioners would also have to take into consideration all complaints of similar nature. They were directed to send their reports on each complaint. The ECP said that individual complaints would be addressed according to the contents of the reports prepared by the provincial election commissioners.