PESHAWAR: The Peshawar High Court on Wednesday reserved its judgement on three petitions of a former provincial governor, a former chief minister and two former ministers against the issuance of notices to them by the Election Commission of Pakistan for “violating” the revised code of conduct for local body elections last year.

A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Syed M Attique Shah heard arguments of lawyers for the government and four petitioners.

One of the petitions was jointly filed by the then chief minister, Mahmood Khan, and the then provincial minister, Anwer Zeb, while the others were separately filed by the then provincial governor, Shah Farman, and the then provincial minister, Muhibullah.

All four petitioners challenged the revised code of conduct issued by the ECP on March 10, 2022, barring public officeholders from campaigning in the second phase of local body elections in 18 districts of the province last year.

Petitioners claim ECP code of conduct in violation of law

They also objected to the notices issued to them by the respective district monitoring officer (DMO) as well as the Rs50,000 fine imposed on them.

Last year the high court had issued stay orders in favour of the petitioners and directed the ECP not to take any adverse action against the petitioners.

Advocate Ali Gohar Durrani appeared for the petitioners and stated that the DMO had issued notices to three petitioners, including Shah Farman, Mahmood Khan and Anwer Zeb, along with the then prime minister and PTI chairman, Imran Khan, on March 11, 2022, for attending a public meeting in Lower Dir district in violation of the election code. He also fined them Rs50,000 each.

Similarly, he said the DMO in Swat district put Muhibullah on notice on March 16, 2022, for attending a public meeting. The then minister was later fined Rs50,000.

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

He said the KP governor enjoyed constitutional immunity from any criminal and civil proceedings against him but despite that he was issued notice by the DMO.

He requested the court to declare that neither the ECP nor its DMO was empowered to seek the governor’s appearance before them through notices under the immunity guaranteed to him under Constitution as well as in light of the amendments made to the Elections Act, 2017, through an ordinance of 2022.

He argued that 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 campaigns.

The counsel contended that while parliament was not in session, the country’s president had promulgated the Elections (Amendment) Ordinance (Ordinance I of 2022) on Feb 21, 2022.

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

The lawyer added that the amendment allowed MNAs, MPAs and other elected representatives of the people to visit or address public meetings in any area or constituency.

Additional attorney general Sanaullah said the ordinance in question lapsed last year.

He argued that the code of conduct was formulated by the ECP after consulting the major political parties and it was binding on all parties to follow that code.

The counsel contended that those petitions were liable to be dismissed.

During the hearing, Justice Ijaz Anwar asked Mr Durrani in a lighter vein which political side his client, Mahmood Khan was on these days.

Mr Durrani replied that he didn’t contact Mr Mahmood recently.

Published in Dawn, November 16th, 2023