ECP issues notices to PM Imran, 141 others for misreporting election expenditure

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ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday issued notices to 142 parliamentarians, including Prime Minister Imran Khan, for not fulfilling legal requirements regarding election expenditures.

The ECP has directed the lawmakers to submit their respective replies to the notices within seven days.

The commission stated that the documents submitted by the members lacked the name and contact number of the publishers while copies of the material printed for election campaign were also not attached.

According to the list, the notices have been issued to 96 National Assembly (NA) and 46 provincial assemblies members.

Besides PM Khan, the notices were served to Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar, Punjab Assembly Speaker Pervez Elahi, former premier Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, former defence minister Khawaja Asif, Punjab Information Minister Fayyaz Chohan and others.

The ECP had forbidden candidates contesting for National Assembly seats from spending more than Rs4 million on their election campaigns. The campaign expenditure of those contesting for provincial assembly seats could not exceed Rs2 million.

ECP had also ordered candidates could only withdraw money from bank accounts that had been declared as their election accounts.

According to ECP authorities, investigation of the accounts provided by the candidates was a legal requirement and action will be taken against those who were found guilty of overspending.