Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar, Leader of the opposition in Senate of Pakistan on Thursday urged the Interim Government to take immediate steps for providing legal cover to the entire Code of Conduct for Political Parties, issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan for General Elections 2013.
He stated that Senate Special Committee on Election issues extensively worked on the said Code and Election Commission of Pakistan has also taken on board in order to build a broad based consensus. Resultantly, the Committee on January 7, 2013, forwarded recommendations pertaining to the Code to the Election Commission of Pakistan, which is widely adopted by ECP.
One of the major concerns of the Committee is regarding missing legal cover to major part of the Code. Certain provisions have the legal backing whereas the substantive part is merely moral which requires the legislative backup for effective implementation of the said Code. For example the Code of Conduct provides that no transaction towards the election expenses shall be made through an account other than the account opened for the purpose; however, there is no legal remedy available for its violation.
Furthermore, the Code enunciates that issuing of advertisements at the cost of public exchequer in the newspapers and other media and misuse of official mass media during the election period for partisan coverage of political news and publicity by the Federal, Provincial and Local governments shall be prohibited; obligation of Political Parties and candidates to restrain their workers from exerting undue pressure against the print and electronic media, including newspaper offices and printing presses, or resorting to violence of any kind against the media; however, no legal backing is available to the said provision. Furthermore, Code of Conduct places a ban on Aerial firing, use of crackers and other explosives at public meetings and at or near the polling stations by any person, which lacks legal backing and the Committee, recommended that consequential amendment shall be introduced in law providing stringent penalties leading to seven years' imprisonment and making the proposed offence as non-bailable.-PR