PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Tuesday issued a stay order temporarily stopping the Election Commission of Pakistan from recovering Rs50,000 fine from the provincial governor, chief minister and a provincial minister for violating the code of conduct for local body polls.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Qaiser Rashid Khan and Justice Syed M Attique Shah sought the ECP’s reply to two related petitions against the revised code of conduct issued on March 10, which barred public office-holders from campaigning in the second phase of local body elections in 18 districts of the province.

One of the petitions is filed by Governor Shah Farman, whereas the other petition was jointly filed by Chief Minister Mahmood Khan and provincial minister Anwer Zeb.

All three petitioners have challenged the ECP’s March 10 order through which the revised code of conduct was issued and subsequent actions taken by the officials including issuance of notices to them.

PHC seeks ECP’s reply to petitions against revised code of conduct

The district monitoring officer had issued notices to the three petitioners on March 11 along with the then prime minister, Imran Khan, for attending a public meeting in Lower Dir district the same day in violation of the election code. They were also fined Rs50,000 each by the DMO. Their appeals are pending with the ECP in Islamabad.

Advocate Ali Gohar Durrani appeared for the petitioners and said during the last hearing on March 30, the court had ordered the ECP not to take any ‘adverse’ action against his clients over the notices issued to them for violating the revised code of conduct.

He, however, said the court didn’t stop the commission from recovering fine from the petitioners.

The lawyer said the ECP was informed about the restraining order but the relevant officials insisted that the court didn’t stay the recovery of fine.

An official of the ECP said after receiving the restraining order, the commission had not taken any action against the petitioners. He sought time for responding to the petitions in writing.

Lawyer Durrani contended that the ECP had overstepped its constitutional authority by issuing the revised code of conduct following promulgation of an ordinance through which changes were made in the Elections Act, 2017.

He said Section 233 of the Election Act, 2017, provided for the code of conduct for political parties, contesting candidates, security forces, media, etc, while Section 234 was related to the monitoring of election campaign.

The counsel said while parliament was not in session, the president of Pakistan promulgated the Elections (Amendment) Ordinance (Ordinance I of 2022) on Feb 21.

He said the ordinance inserted Section 181-A into the Elections Act, 2017.

“That amendment in furtherance of the democratic ideals allows members of parliament, provincial assembly, or elected members of local government, including members holding any other office under the constitution or any other law, to visit or address public meetings in any area or constituency,” he said.

Mr Durrani contended that after insertion of Section 181-A in the Act, actions of the petitioners stood ‘well within the mandate of the law’.

He said the revised code of conduct was against all norms of legal principles and had set at naught the said amendment.

Published in Dawn, April 13th, 2022