February 02, 2008	Saturday	Muharram 23, 1429

CHITRAL, Feb 1: Some candidates are using mosques for their election campaigns in the district, people complained here on Wednesday.

“As the general election is coming closer, some candidates have resorted to the mosques for their electioneering purposes in Chitral, which hitherto have been solely used by the religious parties,” voters said.

Due to the snowfall and extreme cold weather, no public rally or corner meetings were possible to be held and the candidates had started door to door campaign recently. But now candidates were seen thronging to mosques to address the voters after the congregational prayers. Imams Shahi Bazar Mosque told Dawn that the candidates were addressing the faithful soon after the prayers regularly for the last five days.

“In the past, candidates of religious parties only used the Shahi Mosque pulpits for this purpose,” he said, adding that the candidates exercised greater respect and decorum of the mosque, and used careful words to convey their message.

When contacted, a candidate said: “Necessity is the mother of invention and I have no option other than the mosques to reach maximum number of people.”