Rejecting the government’s request of lifting ban on recruitments in all government departments and diversion of funds, the Election Commission of Pakistan (EC) on Wednesday allowed only constitutional bodies to make fresh hiring.
However, the commission decided to review references filed by 25 government organisations seeking revocation of the ban.
“On Thursday, the commission will review the request of government organisations for recruitments on a case-to-case basis. We will also consider some requests of diversion of funds. There will be no issue of diversion of funds for strategically important projects,” said ECP Secretary Ishtiak Ahmed Khan in a press conference. He said the commission would also consider requests made by some donor agencies of diversion of funds. The Election Commission on Wednesday met with Chief Election Commissioner Justice (r) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim in the chair. In the meeting, the commission thoroughly discussed the government’s request of lifting ban on recruitments. However, after a detailed briefing, the commission decided to lift ban on recruitments in constitutional bodies like the Supreme Court, high courts, district courts, ombudsman office and provincial assemblies.
Khan said the departments that advertised vacant positions before August 31, 2012 were allowed to fill positions. The commission also rejected the government’s request of allowing it to divert funds that were originally allocated for some other projects. The secretary said 25 government departments had sent references to the ECP seeking lifting of ban on fresh hiring and it was decided that the commission would review their request on a case-to-case basis.
Earlier in the meeting, the commission discussed a letter sent by Federal Tax Ombudsman’s office, in which the ECP was apprised that 70 percent of the parliamentarians had failed to file their tax return in 2011. The letter requested the ECP to make it mandatory that tax documents be submitted together with nomination papers.
The secretary said in order to conduct free and transparent elections, the ECP had decided to stop tax evaders and bank defaulting candidates from contesting elections. “We have forward a request for making legislation, in which ECP requests one month period for scrutinising the candidates. If a new law is passed, we will have one month to scrutinise the candidates,” Khan said.
He said the ECP also decided to contact the State Bank of Pakistan and Federal Board of Revenue to help ECP scrutinise electoral candidates.
Khan said after holding a meeting with FBR and State Bank, the ECP would chalk out a mechanism to stop tax evaders and bank defaulters.
To a query, the secretary said fake degree-holders who contested last elections on the basis of fake degrees would not be allowed to take part in elections. The meeting also reviewed ineligibility of parliaments and implementation of Articles 62 and 63 of the constitutions. The commission will also hold a meeting with opposition parties today (Thursday) to discuss charter of demands submitted by them on Monday. The opposition parties have requested the ECP to conducting fresh delimitation of constituencies and verification of voters’ list in Karachi and removal of 27 bureaucrats from important positions before the general elections.