The Election Commission of Pakistan has imposed a finelink to the tune of Rs50,000 on PrimeMinister Imran Khan link forviolating the election code.
The fine link was slapped by Lower DirDistrict Monitoring Officer. The DMO has asked the prime minister to submitthe fine link to the national kitty by March22.
Besides PM Khan, other political leaders who were fined for violating theelection code included Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Mehmood Khan, KPGovernor Shah Farman, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, DevelopmentMinister Asad Umar, Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak, CommunicationMinister Murad Saeed, provincial minister Anwar Zeb and MPA Liaquat Ali.They were also fined Rs50,000 each.
The election commission has also imposed finelink on chairmen candidates of 7 tehsils.
According to the DMO notice, the state machinery was used during a publicrally held by the ruling PTI in Lower Dir on March 11. The DMO said thatuse of state resources could impact the forthcoming local governmentelections in the KP.
Read Top Stories
It is pertinent to mention here that the election commission also issued anotice to Prime Minister Khan for participating in the rally and summonedhim on March 14, either in person or through his counsel.
Also on Friday, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had rejected the petition,seeking court order to bar the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) fromtaking an action against Prime Minister Imran Khanlink. During the hearing of thepetition, Barrister Ali Zafar, counsel for the prime minister, prayed tothe court to bar the ECP link from actingagainst his client until the next hearing.
Justice Aamer Farooq remarked that the court could not grant ‘stay’ in thecase. “Seeing PM Imran’s conduct, the IHC cannot give such an order to theelection commission,” he said, and added that the premier ought to haveappeared in the ECP link. “Why don’t youappear in the ECP link and raise the issuesthere?” he asked.
