ECP dismisses DI Khan returning officer over abuse of power

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday dismissed the Returning Officer (RO) of constituency NA-44 of Dera Ismail Khan for abusing his authority, ARY News reported.

In its press release, the ECP stated that the Returning Officer (RO) of NA-44 was found guilty in the preliminary report of abusing his authority and changing the symbol of a candidate within his constituency in an unauthorized manner.

The electoral watchdog took immediate action and instructed the Chief Secretary of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) to suspend the Additional Deputy Commissioner General while appointing, Gulfan Abbas Shah as Returning Officer of NA-44.

The ECP formed a three-member inquiry committee under the chairmanship of the Provincial Election Commissioner KP which will be bound to submit its report within six days.

Earlier, the ECP has directed all Returning Officers (ROs) to conduct a rehearsal for the General Elections 2024 to examine the functioning of the Election Management System (EMS).

All the ROs are directed to complete the rehearsal by 26th January. The ECP directed the ROs to provide mock Forms 28 and 33 to the Presiding Officers by January 25.

The ECP sources said that already prepared mock Form 45 will be delivered to all ROs by January 25. The ROs will instruct the Presiding Officers to provide the results through the mobile app on 26th January by 5 pm.

The EMS operators will start data entry of Form 45 after 5 pm on January 26. After completing Form 45, EMS operators will enter the data from Form 47. After completion of the process, the EMS operators will ensure that all presiding officers have deleted data from the mobile app.