KARACHI, Aug 31: No political party in the city has planned any political event on Sunday which could be termed a gathering of some consequences as a manifestation of relaxation of the ban on political activities.

However, the programmes which have been scheduled by some of the parties for tomorrow would be a routine matter, such as corner meetings, gatherings and party sessions.

The restriction was imposed on political activities soon after the military takeover on Oct 12, 1999. However, parties were free to organize meetings within the four walls.

“The government has lifted the ban on political activities from Sept 1. Therefore, in order to maintain peace and tranquillity, unhampered political activities and law and order during the election campaign, all the political parties are advised to adhere to the code of conduct issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan in consultation with all the political parties,” an official press release said.

“Violation of the code of conduct shall be brought to the knowledge of the election commission for appropriate action. The leaders of the political parties are further advised to coordinate the schedule of political gatherings with the local administration, for which committees in all the districts have been formed under the chairmanship of district Nazimeen with DCO and CCPO/DPO as members to avoid clash of time, venues and dates.

“The political leadership is also advised to ensure that there shall be no display of weapons during the political activities”, the press release added.

The potential political parties in Karachi, including the Muttahida Qaumi Movement, the Muttahida Majlis-Amal, the Pakistan People’s Party, the Pakistan Muslim League (QA) and the Pakistan Muslim League (N), when asked if they had chalked out any programmes to mark the first day of relaxation on political activities, gave almost an identical response.

“At the moment, our leadership is busy in scrutiny matters and finalization of the party candidates. The situation will be clear only after Sept 2, when initial scrutiny of the candidates would be completed.

“The most important engagement scheduled for tomorrow is scrutiny of women candidates on the reserved seats as on one of the reserved seats party chairperson Benazir Bhutto has also filed her nomination,” a PPP leader on condition of anonymity told Dawn.

However, leaders of the relatively new parties, which have yet to prove their parliamentary representation, were found engrossed with the party affairs to the extent that they had no idea of the importance of the day.

When their attention was drawn towards the official announcement, they pointed out that in the relaxation order there was nothing new as even after relaxation it has been made obligatory on the parties to decide the plans of their activities in consultation with the relevant authorities prior to finalization of their programmes.

In the relaxation announcement, the rules for organizing political gatherings have also been laid down which continued a ban on holding rallies and taking out processions on streets, roads and in railway stations.

“Political meetings shall only be organized at places/areas specified by the district/provincial governments in order to prevent public inconvenience and to maintain normal public life”, the announcement made on Aug 27 read.

When asked about the specific activity of the day, the response of various leaders was not so significant:

The Muttahida leaders were in a meeting at their party head quarters when Dawn tried to contact them. However, a party spokesman said: “At the moment a meeting is going on and neither Dr Farooq Sattar bhai nor Aftab Shaikh bhai could be reached.”

MMA Karachi president Hafiz Mohammad Taqi said the district organizations of the party would hold their meetings on Sunday for formulating strategies for the election campaign.

Mian Ejaz Shafi of the PML (N) said they were seized with the situation and were considering the issues being faced by the party.

Dr Arif Alvi of Tehreek-i-Insaf said they would hold a corner meeting in PS-90 in the evening which, he said, was a usual gathering their party had been organizing.

Amin Khattak of the National Awami Party said they were in a session with leaders of the Grand National Alliance to finalize a list of candidates.

He said election campaign could only be started after Sept 5, when the situation would be clear about candidates.

Masood Ahmad Osmani of the Pakistan Awami Tehreek said: “Tomorrow our party has arranged a reception for all our candidates after which the candidates will ride a truck, the symbol allotted to the party, to go to the Mazar Quaid for launching election campaign.”