Zero Tolerance To Be Adopted On Code Of Conduct Violations: Deputy Commissioner Matiari

The Deputy Commissioner Matiari Captain (Retd) Altaf Hussain Sario who is also the District Monitoring Officer, has claimed that the district administration had adopted zero tolerance policy to enforce the Code of Conduct of the Election Commission of Pakistan in letter and spirit.

HYDERABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Jul, 2018 ) :The Deputy Commissioner Matiari Captain (Retd) Altaf Hussain Sario who is also the District Monitoring Officer, has claimed that the district administration had adopted zero tolerance policy to enforce the Code of Conduct of the Election Commission of Pakistan in letter and spirit.

He said Matiiri is the only district where the show cause notices have been issued to contesting candidates on violation of ECP Code of Conduct for providing level playing field to each contesting candidate.

This, he stated while presiding over a meeting of the heads of all district departments, election code of conduct monitoring officers, Assistant Returning Officers (AROs), Assistant Commissioners and officials of Law enforcement agencies (LEAs) at Deputy Commissioner Secretariat on Tuesday.

He informed that the meeting chaired by Commissioner Hyderabad Division yesterday has decided not to tolerate any violation of ECP code of conduct and violators should be strictly dealt as per law in order to ensure the conduct of elections in free, fair and impartial manner.

In case of resistance, the law enforcement agencies will fully support the monitoring teams, he said and informed that violations of ECP code of conduct were reported by monitoring teams on which concerned authorities have taken severe action against candidates.

The Deputy Commissioner directed the monitoring teams to call all the candidates of NA-223, PS-58 and PS-59 to apprise them about the zero tolerance policy of the administration for implementation of ECP code of conduct adding that show cause notices issued would not be withdrawn and in spite of that candidates do not refrain from violating code of conduct then their cases will be referred to ECP which could lead to their disqualification of the candidature from General Elections2018.

The candidates who received show cause have been asked to submit their reply within 24 hours as to why action should not be initiated against them as per ECP Code of Conduct, he said and informed that 45 candidates who were served show cause notices by district administration Matiari did not get prior written permit for holding public rallies, gatherings, corner meetings, installed their unspecified and unapproved banners, steamers, panaflexes and Billboards in different parts of provincial and national constituency particularly on government buildings, electric poles, traffic guideline boards and wall chalking etc. Besides, he said that show cause notices have also been issued to some government officers and officials on violation of conduct, participating, indulging and supporting electioneering campaigns/political activities of various political parties.

The Deputy Commissioner also directed the heads of all government colleges and schools in jurisdiction of district to submit a certificate declaring that there was no any election publicity material, banners, flags, panaflex and wall chalking besides ensuring that no political activity takes place in government buildings.