General elections to the Legislative Assembly of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) will be held on July 25, which happens to be a Sunday and either the third or the fourth day of Eidul Azha, region's Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Justice retired Abdul Rashid Sulehria, announced on Thursday.
Accompanied by Raja Farooq Niaz and Farhat Ali Mir, Senior Member and Member, respectively, of the Election Commission (EC), he asserted at a crowded press conference held in the Committee Room of New Civil Secretariat Muzaffarabad that his institution would leave no stone unturned to conduct the election process in a free, fair and impartial manner.
"This should also lay to rest speculations or rumours that elections are being or will be delayed for any reason," the CEC said.
Of the 45 direct seats of the Legislative Assembly, 33 are located in the AJK territory with over 2.817 million registered voters, including 1.297 million women, and 12 are located in Pakistan with 430456 registered voters, including 170931 women, he said.
The commission would try its best to seek the army's assistance to ensure law and order during elections. However, in case the army personnel are not available, civilian armed forces and paramilitary troops would be called for the purpose in addition to the AJK police personnel, responded Mr Niaz to a questioner.
Of elections in the 12 constituencies in Pakistan, he informed that the officers of the Election Commission of Pakistan would be placed at the disposal of the ECAJK to be appointed as District Returning Officers (DROs) and Returning Officers (ROs).
The AJK government and the EC would make requests to the provincial governments concerned to ensure security of polling stations and staff on the polling day, Mr Niaz added.
The CEC declared that after the announcement of the schedule the government could not make any fresh appointments or transfers or announce or execute new development schemes.
However, in unavoidable cases it will have to seek prior permission from the EC, he said.
When the CEC was asked if this ban also applied to ongoing regularization of scores of ad-hoc, temporary and contractual employees that the government had ordered to complete within two weeks under a recently passed controversial law, he replied in the affirmative.
When another reporter repeated a similar question for the sake of clarity, Mr Niaz reiterated that the EC would not allow any appointment.
“We hope the government will respect this ban and stop appointments,” the EC senior member said.
SCHEDULE
According to the schedule, nomination papers will be filed by the candidates before the ROs on or before June 21 till 4pm. But before filing their papers, the candidates will be required to submit details of their moveable and immoveable assets and income and obtain its receipt from the commission.
Scrutiny of nominations will be conducted on the following day from 8am onward and lists of validly nominated candidates will be published by the ROs the same evening.
Aggrieved persons could file appeals against the acceptance or rejection of nomination papers by the ROs before the ECAJK by 2pm on June 27 and the hearings of appeals will be held on June 28-29 while decisions will be announced on June 30 and July 1.
Candidates could withdraw their nominations by July 2, and lists of contesting candidates will be published on the following day.
Election symbols to the parties and candidates will be allotted on July 4 before 2pm and the final list of contesting candidates with election symbols will be published on the same day while polling will be held on July 25 from 8am to 5pm.
The CEC also unveiled a 16 page ‘code of conduct’ for the political parties, candidates and their polling agents, envisaging strict adherence to the legal and constitutional requirements and other guidelines.
Reading out some important points, Mr Sulehria made it clear that no candidate, including the AJK premier, speaker, deputy speaker and ministers, would be allowed to use official resources, particularly official vehicles, for election campaign or else they could be disqualified from contesting elections and the vehicle concerned would be confiscated.
This condition would also apply to the visiting government functionaries from Pakistan, including the prime minister of Pakistan, federal ministers, advisers and special assistants, he declared.
When a reporter drew the CEC's attention towards the fact that each of the former AJK presidents and prime ministers was entitled to an official vehicle and 400 litres fuel or its cost per month, he and members “expressed the hope” that these leaders would not use the same for electioneering.
In view of the Covid-19 situation, big public gatherings and processions had also been banned. However, each candidate could hold one public meeting with prior approval of date, time and place from the deputy commissioner concerned as well as with strict adherence to the SOPs, the CEC said.
He said expenditures by the candidates on electioneering should not exceed Rs 5 million each, including those expenses not directly made by them but by their political party or agents on their campaign.
There would be a complete ban on display of large hoardings, billboards and panaflex posters as well as wall chalking, the CEC said, warning that violations would be taken as an unlawful activity.
The CEC expressed the hope that all political parties would avoid personal attacks or any such thing that ran the risk of vitiating the peaceful atmosphere of the region.
When a reporter asked that since senior member Mr Niaz was closely related to Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider and he had lately given premature retirement to Mr Mir for his present assignment, how could be guaranteed that they would not show a tilt towards the ruling PML-N, the CEC maintained that both were "men of above board integrity and credibility."
On this, a visibly irked Mr Mir stated that theirs were constitutionally protected positions and they would not violate their oath.
"Rest assured we will do whatever the law and Constitution demands from us," he said.
He urged the media to support and facilitate ECAJK in discharge of its duties.
Tariq Naqash
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