ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has asked the political parties and contesting candidates to remove their banners, panaflex and signboards voluntarily exceeding the approved size specified by the Commission.

According to ECP, all political parties have been asked to cooperate with the district administration and abide by the election rules. It said the ECP’s district monitoring teams are in action and have started removing posters and banners violating the approved size under the polls code. It said the ECP monitoring team in Rawalpindi district removed illegal publicity material from over 140 points besides other cities.

The Commission said the ECP had appointed as many as 592 monitoring teams throughout the country to monitor election campaign. It said 99 teams have been constituted in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 297 in Punjab, 130 in Sindh, 51 in Balochistan, 12 in FATA and three in federal capital to monitor election campaigns of the candidates both for the national and provincial assemblies.

It said these teams will monitor election campaigns of candidates and political parties to ensure strict compliance of the code of conduct. It added the ECP will not tolerate any violation on account of publicity material.

As per the code of conduct, no person or a political party can affix or distribute posters, handbills, pamphlets, leaflets, banners or portraits, larger than the sizes prescribed by the Commission.—APP