Pakistan’s election body allows interim setup to take suitable actions related to foreign agreements

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday allowed the country’s federal and provincial caretaker setup to take appropriate steps related to various international agreements to ensure their smooth implementation, said a notification.
Pakistan appointed the caretaker administration of Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar at the federal level earlier this month after the dissolution of the lower house of parliament ahead of the next general elections.
According to the constitution, the national and provincial interim setup is required to supervise free and fair elections within 90 days following the dissolution of national and provincial assemblies.
However, their tenure is expected to go well beyond the stipulated period after the ECP said in a recent notification that it plans to redraw federal and provincial constituencies by December 14 before announcing the election schedule.
“The Care-Taker Governments being non-political entities can take actions or decisions regarding existing bilateral or multilateral agreements or the projects already initiated under the Public Private Partnership Authority Act, 2017 (VIII of 2017), the Inter-Governmental Commercial Transactions Act, 2022 (XXX of 2022) and the Privatization Commission Ordinance, 2000 (LII of 2000) under intimation to this Commission,” the ECP notification said.
It reiterated that the federal or provincial caretaker governments must not do anything to influence or adversely impact the free, fair and transparent conduct of the upcoming elections.
The ECP had already issued a comprehensive code of conduct for the interim administrations of the country, reminding them that their mandate was to manage day-to-day matters to run the affairs of the federation and provinces in accordance with law.
It strictly prevented them from announcing new development schemes while announcing that all funds for such projects “shall stand frozen” until the notification of election results.