City District Government spokesman Muhammad Imran, said here on Saturday that out of the 741 candidates contesting on the 11 National Assembly and 22 Provincial Assembly seats in Faisalabad, only 13 had so far deposited the advertising fees.
He said the city government had decided to remove the banners, hoardings and posters of candidates who had not deposited the advertising fee for the space.
He said the candidates who had paid the fee included former law minister Rana Sanaullah Khan (Rs157,000), Muhammad Nawaz Malik (Rs78,000), Khawaja Islam (Rs22,000), Mian Abdul Manan, Mumtaz Ali Cheema, Chaudhry Shafiq Gujjar, Faqeer Hussain Dogar, Qamaruz Zaman Awan, Shahadat Baloch, Raja Riaz Ahmad, Abid Sher Ali, Tahir Jameel and Asghar Ali Qaisar.
Imran said, “According to the election rules and regulations, advertisement fee for a flax board [per pole] is Rs450 and for two banners is Rs350.”
He said indiscriminate action would be taken against the campaigns of those who had not deposited the fee.
‘Foolproof security measures taken’
A four-member team headed by Chief Secretary Javed Iqbal held a meeting with Divisional Commissioner Mushtaq Ahmed Najam and other senior officials to discuss the security situation in the division here on Saturday.
Speaking at the meeting, the chief secretary said the election commission’s code of conduct should be enforced in letter and spirit and no stone should be left unturned to maintain fool-proof security for the election.
He said ballot papers should be delivered on time and emergency lights should be provided at the polling stations to deal with load shedding.
He said general hold-ups and search operations for criminals and suspicious people should continue to ensure the safety of people. Iqbal said control rooms, crisis management and monitoring cells should also be made operative.
The divisional commissioner said that 5,557 polling stations were being set up in the division.
He said divisional and district authorities had checked the arrangements at these polling stations and directed the staff concerned to perform election duty vigilantly.
RPO Javed Islam said a comprehensive election security plan had been devised and special police force had been deployed at all ‘sensitive’ polling stations.
He said police’s quick response force, special reserve elite force, extra-elite force and close-supervision teams had been deployed to deal with any challenges.
The chief secretary and members of his team expressed satisfaction with the security arrangements.
The visiting team included Additional Chief Secretary Rao Iftikhar Ahmed, Local Government Secretary Ali Raza Bhutta and I&C Secretary Farhan Aziz Khawaja.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 5th, 2013.