SIALKOT, Oct 4: Campaign expenses of local business tycoons contesting elections on tickets of mainstream political parties have crossed the limits set by the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Many of the leading exporters of the city are in the run for assemblies. These people are spending lavishly on their publicity. They have opened a large number of election offices in the city and its outskirts.

The Election Commission has ordained that electioneering expenses of a candidate for a National Assembly seat should not be more than Rs1.5 million and that of a candidate for a provincial assembly seat not more than one million rupees.

However, the PML-QA candidate for NA-110 (Sialkot city), Sialkot International Airport Limited chairman Mian Mohammad Riaz, has established more than 122 election halls in the city, all of which are well-illuminated and -furnished. Free meals are provided to visitors round the clock.

Local political observers say that the maximum expenses allowed by the Election Commission (Rs1.5 million) are incurred on the campaign of Mr Riaz in a single day. Giant hoardings, posters and banners as well as huge ads of Mian Riaz on the front and back pages of almost all Urdu dailies also give some indication of the extent of his extravagance.

The PML-N candidate for NA-110, Khwaja Mohammad Asif, is not far behind Mian Riaz in violating the EC limits. Khwaja Asif has launched a media war against PML-QA through huge ads in Urdu dailies.

Inside sources said all candidates of PML-QA, PPP and PML-N for national and provincial assemblies’ seats in Sialkot city had already crossed the campaign expenses limits prescribed by the Election Commission.