ISLAMABAD: The notice issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari to file a response for visiting Larkana’s PS-11 constituency will end today.
The chairman and other party leaders were ordered to submit a response or visiting Larkana’s PS-11 constituency ahead of the 17th October by-poll within a day of receiving the notice but they have not yet filed their reply.
Bilawal Zardari addressed rallies in various parts of the city, including Nazar Mohalla and Pakistan Chowk areas.
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The notice came after Bilawal visited Larkana earlier on Saturday where he led a campaign rally for his party candidate, Jamil Soomro, for the upcoming by-election.
The ECP warned that their failure to do so would result in disciplinary action under relevant election laws.
On Monday, the district returning officer issued them a final notice, asking them to file their response until Tuesday or else action would be taken against them.
According to the notification, the monitoring team’s observations and media reports proved that Bilawal had violated the ECP code of conduct.
The ECP notification stated, “Being a member of the National Assembly, you were fully aware of the announcement of schedule of by-election which requires that you cannot visit the constituency in any manner whatsoever after the announcement of the election schedule, let alone campaign for any contesting candidate.”
According to paragraph 17 of the ECP’s Code of Conduct, no member of parliament can visit a constituency where by-elections are scheduled after the dates for the election have been notified.
Paragraph 17 states: “The president, prime minister, chairman and deputy chairman of Senate, speaker and deputy speaker of provincial and national assemblies, members of Senate or an assembly, federal ministers, ministers of the state, governors, chief ministers, provincial ministers and advisers to the prime minister and chief ministers, mayors, nazims and their deputies and other public officer holders shall not participate in election campaign in any manner.”
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