ISLAMABAD -  The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has barred national and provincial assembly members from visiting constituencies for running election campaign.

The development comes after PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s meeting with Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (Retd) Sardar Muhammad Raza seeking permission for party leaders to campaign for their candidates in bye-election in NA-120 Lahore.

PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi has said: “We have raised objection on paragraph five and six of the notification because as a member of opposition I don’t have any resources or authority to promise anything to the constituents. “I don’t have any influence on the government whereas the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s nominee will have direct or indirect access to state resources,” he added.

The move also bars PTI Chairman Imran Khan from running campaign in NA-120 for PTI candidate.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has announced the schedule for election in NA-120, which was left vacant after the disqualification of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

According to the ECP schedule, the election in NA-120 will take place on September 17 while candidates will be able to submit their nomination papers between August 10-12. The ECP will review nomination papers between August 15-17.

The Supreme Court, in its verdict on the Panamagate case, had found Nawaz Sharif “unfit to hold office”, following which the PML-N leader stepped down from his post.

Shortly after, the ECP also issued a notification disqualifying Nawaz Sharif as a member of the National Assembly. In a related development, Election Commission of Pakistan, under Article-220 of the Constitution has asked NADRA to provide relevant data to enable experimental use of bio-metric machines in the by-elections of NA-120 and PP-4.

The ECP has already contacted NADRA to receive voters’ data of concerned constituencies on time for use of these machines in bye-elections on September 17, 2017 on trial basis.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission has constituted monitoring teams for by-elections in NA-120 and PP-4 Gujar Khan.

According to ECP , these teams will monitor the code of conduct and assist the Commission to implement its directives during the election process.

The Election Commission has also established a central monitoring cell to monitor the by-elections in both the constituencies.

Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has decided to use Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) and Biometric Voting Machine (BVM) on trial basis in NA-120 Lahore and PP-4 Gujar Khan bye-elections.

According to ECP, the decision was taken in the ECP meeting on August 9, chaired by Chief Election Commissioner Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza.

It was also decided to use available 100 biometric machines and 150 electronic voting machines in these two bye-elections to observe the performance of these machines on technical grounds.

The meeting decided that media persons will be briefed on functioning of these machines while there be practical exhibition of these machines in front of media.

It was also decided that the ECP will take steps to educate voters and candidates of the concerned constituencies.

These steps will help ECP get support of voters and candidates in achieving better results from use of these machines.