PESHAWAR: Around 440 employees of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Fata, on Monday moved the Peshawar High Court against the withdrawal of special election allowance given to them since March 2013.

They requested the high court to declare the withdrawal of the election allowance as illegal and unconstitutional and order the respondents to resume its payment.

A joint writ petition was filed by all the employees challenging the letter of the budget wing of the ECP issued on Jan 15 through which the abolishing of the said allowance and recovery of the already paid amount on that account was ordered.

The petition was filed through Advocate Qazi Jawad Ahsanullah. The respondents in the petition are: federal government through federal finance secretary; ECP through its secretary; provincial election commissioner; Accountant General Revenue Islamabad; assistant accountant general revenue, sub-office Peshawar; auditor general revenue Peshawar; and, drawing and disbursement officer, ECP Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The petitioners contended that the ECP in its meeting in March 2013 chaired by the then chief election commissioner and including all the four members had decided to introduce election allowance for all the employees of the commission which was equivalent to 20 per cent of the running basic pay. The said meeting, they stated was also attended by the secretary finance and its minutes were also made available.

However, they stated that all of a sudden the commission had stopped the said allowance and also ordered recovery of the already paid amount which was sheer injustice with them.

The petitioners contended that special allowances had already been paid to different institutions and departments performing special tasks like the judiciary, AGPR, secretariat.

The petitioners stated that the ECP was an autonomous institution and it had set up a separate head under which the allowance was given and for that purpose funds were also allocated. They added that the allowance was given to employees in all the ranks without any distinction.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2015

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