Pakistan: Caretaker governmnet receives additional powers after parliament’s nods

Islamabad [Pakistan]: A joint session of Pakistan’s Parliament on Wednesday passed amendments to the Election Act 2017, granting additional powers to the caretaker government to take important decisions on the economy and engage with international institutions, Geo News reported.

Under the new amendments, the interim government can exercise power on ongoing projects and can also look into urgent matters. Federal Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar said that it is important to empower the caretaker government to sign bilateral and multilateral agreements or the projects already initiated under the Public Private Partnership Authority Act 2017, the Inter-Governmental Commercial Transactions Act 2022, and the Privatisation Commission Ordinance 2000.

The bill titled “Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2023” was tabled in the joint session by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Murtaza Javed Abbasi which was approved with a majority vote.

Subclauses 1 and 2 of Section 230 of the election act related to the functioning of the caretaker government have been amended.

The caretaker government will be able to exercise powers on matters related to the ongoing projects, according to the amendments, Geo News reported.
The bill also envisages measures aimed at ensuring the timely compilation and announcement of election results, it said

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) successfully persuaded its allies in the Centre to approve a bill granting additional powers to the caretaker setup a day after the amendment bill was deferred in the parliament for further deliberations, sources told Geo News.

In this regard, Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms meeting was held with PML-N’s Sardar Ayaz Sadiq in the chair to discuss Section 230 — which relates to the functions of a caretaker government.

The sources also said that under the proposed bill, the caretaker government was given “unbridled powers”, which the allied parties, as well as the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), opposed.

After the discussion on Wednesday, the PML-N agreed to make minor changes in the bill that would allow the interim government to only engage with bilateral donors and multilateral institutions, reported Geo News.

Meanwhile, the joint session of parliament also approved an amendment for the transparency of postal balloting which stated that the ECP will upload the details of the postal ballot on the website before elections and if the winning or losing ratio is five per cent then recounting of votes will take place.