Electoral reforms bill to restrict caretaker govt functions

ISLAMABAD: The landmark electoral reforms bill passed by the National Assembly restricts the functions of federal or provincial caretaker government to attending to day-to-day matters and bars it from taking major policy decisions.

Every time, before a caretaker government is put in place, a campaign is vigorously launched to assert that efforts will be made to prolong its stay. Additionally, such interim setup often indulges in massive reforms and reshuffle of bureaucracy apart from taking major policy decisions. The new bill is aimed at curbing all these bids.

Section 230 says a caretaker government shall perform functions to attend to day-to-day matters which are necessary to run the affair of the government; assist the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to hold elections in accordance with law; restrict itself to activities that are of routine, non-controversial and urgent in the public interest and reversible by the future government elected after the elections; and be impartial to every person and political party. It says the caretaker government shall not take major policy decisions except on urgent matters; shall not take any decision or make a policy that may have affect or preempt the exercise of authority by the future elected government; shall not enter into major contract or undertaking if it is detrimental to public interest; shall not enter into major international negotiations with any foreign country or international agency or sign or ratify any international binding instrument except in an exceptional case; and shall not make promotions or major appointments of public officials but may make acting or short term appointments in public interest; shall not transfer public officials unless it is considered expedient and after approval of the ECP; and shall not attempt to influence the elections or do or cause to be done anything which may in any manner, influence or adversely affect the free and fair polls.

Under this section, the prime minister, chief minister or a minister or any other member of the caretaker government shall, within three days from the date of assumption of office, submit to the ECP a wealth statement including assets and liabilities of his spouse and dependent children and the ECP shall publish it.

The issue of voting by overseas Pakistanis has again been postponed due to its impracticality. Section 94 says the ECP may conduct pilot projects for voting by Pakistani expatriates in bye-elections to ascertain its technical efficacy, secrecy, security and financial feasibility and shall share the results with the government. An overseas Pakistani means a citizen of Pakistan under the Pakistan Citizenship Act, l95l or holder of National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis under the National Database and Registration Authority Ordinance, who is working or residing abroad permanently or temporarily for not less than six months.

Regarding the electronic voting and biometric verification, the bill stated that the ECP conduct pilot projects for utilization of electronic voting machines and biometric verification system in bye-elections in addition to the existing manual procedures for voter verification, casting and counting of votes to assess the technical efficacy, secrecy, security and financial feasibility of the electronic voting machines and biometric verification system and shall share the results with the Government, which shall, within fifteen days from the commencement of a session of a House after the receipt of the report, lay the same before Parliament.

Section 138 deals with the determination of veracity of wealth statement and says the ECP shall publish such statements including assets and liabilities received by it and any person may obtain copies of it on payment of prescribed fee. The ECP shall scrutinize or cause to be scrutinized the veracity of the wealth statement including assets and liabilities in such manner as it may deem necessary and for this purpose may seek assistance of any authority, agency or department of the federal or provincial government.

Where the ECP is satisfied that a wealth statement is false in material particulars, the ECP may, after providing an opportunity of being heard to the member direct an authorized officer to file a complaint against the member, who has submitted it for committing the offence of corrupt practice.