Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Ishtiaq Ahmed Khan has said the general elections will be held under the supervision of no institution other than the ECP itself. Talking to reporters on Tuesday after a meeting of Senate’s special committee on setting rules and regulations for the general elections, Khan said elections would not be conducted under the supervision of the Pakistan Army or the judiciary, however adding that where needed, the army and paramilitary forces will be appointed. Khan said that ECP had prepared five special codes of conduct with reference to the elections, which included those about the media, the civil society, political parties, observers, and security. A proposal for increasing the expenditure on electoral campaign for a candidate for the membership of the National Assembly was under consideration according to which the limit of the amount being spent had been raised from Rs 1.5 million to Rs 5 million while that for the candidate for the membership of the provincial assembly had been raised from Rs 1 million to Rs 3 million, the ECP secretary said. To a question, Khan said the document for electoral laws was being prepared and would be sent to parliament within a month for approval. He said the commission wrote to the foreign secretary on September 20 that foreign observers be invited to Pakistan to analyse the arrangements for elections but the foreign secretary had not done it so far, on account of which he had been asked to give an explanation.
