District Returning Officer (DRO) Nazir Ahmad Gajana has directed the police, the local administration and the Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) to remove all election banners, hoardings and posters that exceed the maximum permitted size.
Hearing complaints filed against candidates and supporters of both the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), the DRO directed the district coordination officer (DCO), the senior superintendent of police (SSP) for operations and the PHA director general to make sure that the offending advertisements, which exceed limits set in the Election Commission of Pakistan’s code of conduct, are taken down. The officials must submit a report to the DRO within three days of removing the posters and banners.
A monitoring team spotted a total of 10 violations, five against candidates and five against their supporters. The candidates included Hamza Shahbaz Sharif, who is running at NA-119 and PP-141 and Rohail Asghar (NA-124) of the PML-N, as well as Waleed Iqbal (NA-124) and Tariq Hameed (PP-145) of the PTI. Four complaints were filed against PML-N supporters and one against a PTI supporter.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 29th, 2013.