ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will hold Local Government Elections on direct seats of Punjab on March 21 and issued schedule.
The elections would be held on more than 76 seats of different union councils located in 24 districts of Punjab, said spokesman of the commission on Wednesday.
The seats were remained vacant due the deaths of candidates, wrong allocation of symbols and misprinting of ballot papers etc, he added.
According to the schedule, notice inviting nomination papers to be issued by the Returning Officer on March 4, and nomination papers can be filed on March 7 while scrutiny of the papers will be done on March 8.
The objections on nomination papers can be raised on March 9 and last date for filing of appeals against acceptance or rejection of appeals will be March 10 and tribunals would decide appeals by March 11, he said.
Publication of list of contesting candidates with symbols allotted to them will be displayed on March 12, he added.
In order to ensure that elections in 24 districts of Punjab are conducted fairly, the ECP directs that all executive authorities in the federation will not use state resources in Local Government
Elections calculated to influence the elections in favour of a particular candidate or a political party.
If any person in government service misuses his official position in any manner in order to influence results of elections, he will be liable to be proceeded against under Section 61 of the Punjab Local Government Act, 2013, it added.
“No transfers/postings of the civil servants shall be made after the issuance of Schedule of local government elections for ICT without prior approval of the Election Commission till the publication of election results, the ECP said.
After the issuance of Election Schedule, the President, Prime Minister, Chairman/Deputy Chairman Senate, Speaker, Deputy Speaker, Federal Ministers, Ministers of State, Advisors to the Prime Minister another Public office holder will neither openly nor in secret give any subscription or donation or make promises for giving such subscription or donation to any institution, nor shall inaugurate, commit to undertake or announce any development project therein for the advancement of the campaign of a candidate of his choice and thereby influence the results of elections,” the spokesman said.
Any holder of public office, who is found to have violated any provision of election laws or the instructions issued by the Election Commission, shall be proceeded against as mandated in law, he added.
The offices of the Election Commission as well as the offices of District Returning Officers and Returning Officers will remain open on all public holidays during the schedule period, he maintained.
