Recruitment bans: Govt yet to share concerns on paper

Although law minister met CEC to air grievances, the commission received letter from Senator Rabbani instead.

ISLAMABAD:

The Election Commission of Pakistan’s decision to freeze all recruitments in public sector offices and ban the use of development funds for electioneering has not gelled in well with the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party.

However, the government is yet to submit it concerns regarding the issue to the commission in writing.

“We have not received any such written request from the government,” an ECP official told The Express Tribune on Sunday.

In a directive issued on January 21, the commission imposed a ban on last-minute recruitments in all public sector organisations except those carried out by the federal or a provincial public service commission.



The notification also forbade the government from diverting money to the prime minister’s discretionary fund for distribution to the ruling party for electioneering.

In response, a team led by Law Minister Farooq H Naek met Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Fakharuddin G Ebrahim, and said that the commission did not have any legal powers to issue such directives before the formal announcement of the election schedule.

Thereby, officials from the commission asked the federation’s team to submit their concerns in writing.



The ECP official said that the Naek-led delegation had expressed its reservations and was asked to formally submit their concerns but instead the commission “received a letter from Senator Raza Rabbani raising the issue.”

Responding to a question, the official said that Rabbani talked about the ban on development funds, saying there were several schemes which were being financed by foreign donors and a ban might risk those projects.

On January 30, the commission had taken serious notice of violation of its directive and had asked “the secretary cabinet division; the secretary, ministry of railways, and the Sindh’s chief secretary, to offer their comments, in this regard, within the next seven days.”

Responding to a question, the official said that the commission had not yet received a response from these departments.

It is likely, however, that the commission will be receiving replies from these departments in a couple days, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 4^th, 2013.