PESHAWAR: The provincial election commissioner of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has directed the returning officers (ROs) of 10 districts to recover unpaid fines from leaders of different political parties, including former prime minister Imran Khan, imposed on them for violating the code of conduct in the previous elections.

The leaders who have not paid fines are mostly from Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), including former chief minister Mahmood Khan and former federal ministers Murad Saeed and Muhammad Azam Khan Swati.

Fines were imposed on these leaders by the district monitoring officers (DMOs) during the previous elections for assemblies (provincial and national) and local bodies.

According to the ECP list shared with the ROs in connection with the recovery of fines, Mr Khan had violated the code of conduct four times, and former CM Mahmood Khan violated it three times. Each time, the DMOs had imposed a fine of Rs50,000 on them and other leaders of different parties for repeated violations.

PTI’s Imran, Murad and Swati, Sabir Shah from PML-N, Ghafoor Haideri of JUI-F on the list

JUI-F’s Senator Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and former Senator Pir Sabir Shah of PML-N were also among the violators of the code of conduct and have not paid the fines so far.

Among the former provincial ministers who have not paid fines imposed include Muhib Ullah, Shakeel Khan, Taimur Saleem Jhagra, Ishtiaq Urmar, Shaukat Ali Yousafzai, and Muhammad Iqbal Wazir.

The list also includes former MNAs Saleh Muhammad and former MPAs Abdul Ghaffar, Amjid Afridi, and Inayatullah Khan.

The KP election commissioner has issued a letter to the ROs of Peshawar, Kurram, Malakand, Swat, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, Mansehra, Abbottabad, Haripur, and Kolai Palas districts of the province.

“Accordingly, the DMOs imposed fines upon them under Section 234, Subsection (3) of the Election Act 2017, and the said persons failed to deposit the same. Some of them filed appeals before the Hon’ble commission, which were rejected [for] being devoid of merit,” reads the letter issued by the provincial commissioner to the ROs.

The letter further stated that it had been desired by the competent authority that the list/detail of defaulters be shared with the ROs appointed for general elections to the constituencies of national and provincial assemblies.

Recovery of unpaid fines may be ensured during the scrutiny of nomination papers of the defaulters.

Meanwhile, the spokesman of Insaf Lawyers Forum told media that they have deposited Rs200,000 outstanding against Mr Khan in the account of the ECP on Friday.

He said that the deposited amount was claimed against his leader by the ECP on account of alleged violations of the code of conduct for the local bodies and by-elections for NA-31 Peshawar-V.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2023