LAHORE: The Election Commission of Pakistan has exempted the judiciary from the general ban on recruitments and diversion of funds it had imposed on the federal and all provincial governments.

According to fresh directions given to the Punjab chief secretary, a copy of which was obtained by Dawn on Wednesday, the ECP has clarified that the ban on recruitments and diversion of funds does not apply to the superior judiciary and all subordinate courts.

“The honourable Supreme Court and high courts including lower courts are exempted from the said notification (ban),” the ECP letter says.

The ECP asked the chief secretary to issue necessary instructions to the quarters concerned to exempt the judiciary from the ban and diversion/re-appropriation of funds.

The ECP had on April 11 ordered all provincial and federal governments to stop executing development schemes approved from April 1, and fresh recruitments minus the ones being made by the public service commissions.

The banned schemes, approved on April 1, included installation of gas pipelines, supply of electricity, roads’ carpeting and water supply schemes. The governments, including the local bodies, were also stopped from issuing tenders of such schemes till the conclusion of elections 2018.

The ECP had said that the recruitments and development schemes were to influence election results.

An appeal against fresh recruitments is pending with the Lahore High Court. And the Punjab government has had taken the ban on diversion of the funds for new schemes with a frown.

The authorities had considered the instructions as a blow to its last ditch efforts to reap what it had been sowing for people in the last five years.

Opposition Leader in National Assembly Khursheed Shah has written a letter to the ECP showing his concern over the ban on development schemes and projects and recruitments while terming it premature, and demanding a review.

He has stated the government functions will completely stuck before elections, if these restrictions are imposed at this stage.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2018