By-election to NA-75: Quiet campaign with negligible code violations unlike noisy previous episode

ISLAMABAD: After the high-octane campaign by the principal competing parties for the previous-- and subsequently aborted -- by-election to NA-75 Daska (Sialkot), electioneering this time round seems lacklustre with hardly any violations of the code of conduct issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

So far, Special Assistant to the Punjab Chief Minister Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan has visited the constituency. Leader of opposition in the Punjab Assembly, accompanied by some Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leaders, has gone to the residence of their candidate to condole the death of her father.

The short time left for the campaign, in the wake of the annulment of the Feb 19 polling, may be a reason for fewer visits by senior leaders of the main candidates’ parties. The apex court decision came on April 2 and the by-election will be held on April 10.

Both parties vying for the seat had earlier committed numerous violations of the code. The ECP had not remained a silent spectator but had issued notices to the violators who were either part of the Punjab cabinet or were members of the national and provincial assemblies.

The repeated violations reflected the desperation of the PML-N and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to grab the seat come what may. The urge to establish superiority in NA-75 weighed heavily on their minds, swaying them to often go beyond the law.

Violations of the code had also been committed in PP-51 Wazirabad but they did not match those that happened in NA-75. Every side had struggled to bag this solitary NA constituency to add to its tally for an Islamabad seat of the Senate.

However, unlike Daska, no infringement of the code had been reported from Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where by-elections had also been held.

The earlier campaign for NA-75 had stood out in terms of the number of violations of the code. The ECP had reacted by putting the violators on notice. However, the action did not deter them from going ahead with the infringements. This may be because of the meagre penalty that the ECP can impose after concluding that a breach has actually been committed.

The code says the president, prime minister, Senate chairman/deputy chairman, federal or provincial speakers/deputy speakers, senators, members of all assemblies, federal and provincial ministers, ministers of state, governors, chief ministers, federal and provincial advisers, special assistants, mayors/chairmen of local councils, their deputies and other public office holders cannot participate in the election campaign in any manner whatsoever.

Despite this prohibition, several PML-N and PTI MPs and a couple of Punjab cabinet members had paid visits to the NA-75 and PP-51 constituencies and were caught on camera. PTI leader Usman Dar was an exception in one sense: he had resigned as the special assistant to the prime minister to run the campaign of his party’s candidate.

The code was prepared under Article 218(3) of the Constitution, that says it will be the duty of the ECP to organise and conduct the election and to make such arrangements as are necessary to ensure that the polls are conducted honestly, justly, fairly and in accordance with law, and that corrupt practices are guarded against.

It also relied on Section 233 of the Elections Act, 2017, which says the ECP will, in consultation with the parties, frame a code of conduct for political parties, contesting candidates, election agents and polling agents. The ECP, the electoral law says, will also frame a code for security personnel, media and election observers. All political parties, candidates, election agents, polling agents, security personnel, media and observers will follow the code during an election.

Under section 234, the ECP constitutes a monitoring team consisting of such number of persons as may be determined by it to monitor the election campaigns of the candidates and political parties and report on a regular basis to an officer nominated by it in respect of each district for the purpose of deciding the complaints regarding any violation by a candidate or a political party of any provision of the law, rules or the code. The ECP also constitutes a monitoring team for a constituency or a group of constituencies and determines the terms of reference for it. If such an officer receives a report of any violation and, after holding a summary enquiry, finds that the reported violation has been committed and no other punishment is provided under the law for it, he may impose a fine not exceeding Rs50,000.

The section further says if the nominated officer after a summary enquiry finds a candidate or a political party guilty of violation of the law or rules for the second time, he will refer the matter to the ECP for initiation of proceedings against such candidate or political party under the law, including proceedings for disqualification of the candidate and in case of the political party, its candidate.