PESHAWAR: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) rejected Prime Minister Imran Khan’s plea to suspect the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) notices over breach of polls’ code of conduct ahead of Local government election in the remaining 18 districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The IHC on Saturday issued a three-page order rejecting Imran Khan and Asad Umar pleas for restraining order, saying that they should have appeared before the ECP through lawyers after getting notices. But PM Imran Khan’s lawyer argued that it is against the law to bar PMs and ministers from participating in election campaign.
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Further hearing on the petition will be held on March 28. The court has also issued notices to Attorney General Khalid Javed Khan for assistance in the case.
ECP had issued several notices to Prime Minister Imran Khan, Chief Minister Mehmood Khan, Federal Ministers Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Murad Saeed and Provincial Ministers Mohibullah and Dr Amjad Ali for violating the code of conduct, which was challenged in the Islamabad High Court.
On 24 March, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) again imposed Rs50000 fine on prime minister for another election code of conduct violation by addressing an election rally in Malakand. It was third violation of the prime minister in the past two weeks. Earlier, he was fined for public rallies in Swat and Lower Dir along with Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and federal ministers. The ECP said that in order provide equal playing field to candidates, no public holder can participate in election campaign after the release of election schedule.
Meanwhile, the election body on Friday issued another notice to Imran Khan for breach of polls’ code of conduct by holding a political rally in Manshera ahead of the local government elections. He was directed to appear in person or through a lawyer on March 28 at 11 am before the District Election Monitoring Officer.