In a significant move, the Election Commission (EC) on Wednesday asked the Acting President Chaudhry Amir Hussain to suspend his election campaign as long he was the acting head of the state.
The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Justice (retd) Qazi Muhammad Farooq, through an order issued here said that Amir Hussain might refrain from visiting his area of constituency and suspend his election campaign during the period he was holding the charge of the acting president.
Amir Hussain, who is also the Speaker of the National Assembly, is a candidate for the lower house of the parliament’s constituency NA-11 Sialkot. The EC Secretary, Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad, told The News that the order had been issued in the light of a complaint by another candidate from the same constituency Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, who is a PPPP candidate.
He parried a question about the EC looking into other demands made by the rival candidate, who visited the Election Secretariat on Monday and handed over a petition in this connection to the chief election commissioner.
She had accused the acting president of violating the election rules and the Election Commission’s code of conduct, which included the alleged misuse of state resources for his personal gains. At a news conference on Tuesday, PPP Election Monitoring Cell Chairman Senator Latif Khosa also flayed the acting president and called for setting aside his candidature.
There is also a controversy whether or not in the presence of the Senate Chairman Muhammadmian Soomro, who is presently the caretaker prime minister, the NA speaker could assume the charge of the acting president.
Meanwhile, the CEC on Wednesday asked the inspector general of police, Sindh, to cancel the transfer order of January 11, 2008 of Mazhar Nawaz Shaikh, previously the district police officer Sukkur and recall him to perform his duties as the DPO Sukkur.
On receipt of a complaint against the executive director officer (Revenue), Gujrat, for making transfers and postings of revenue staff despite the ban imposed by the EC, the Election Commission took up the matter. The CEC issued a notice to the EDO to appear and explain his position on this count on January 24 at the ECP Secretariat.
The EC has, so far, received as many as 1,391 complaints that were sent to the relevant government departments, including chief secretaries, district returning officers and inspectors general of police for inquiry and report.
According to an ECP spokesman, reports on 300 complaints were received but the majority of these complaints were termed baseless. In some cases, DROs and ROs took action that included removal of hoardings.
However, it was interesting to note that in some cases, notices were issued to complainants for appearance before the concerned officials for hearing of their complaints, but they either were not available on their addresses or they disowned the complaints.