Law: Election Act, 2017

Section: 230 , 224(1A)

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Universities Act (X of 2012)---

----S.12---Elections Act (XXXIII of 2017), Ss.230 & 224(1A)---Functions of Caretaker Government to run day to day affairs---Scope---Appointment of Vice Chancellors (V.Cs.) in public sector universities---Some members of the Academic Search Committee (ASC) (resigned owing to repeated cancellation of dates of interview of selected candidates---Interim Government substituted the members of ASC, who completed the process of interview and recommended the candidates--Elected Provincial Government re-advertised the posts on the ground that the appointment process was violative of S.230 of the Elections Act, 2017, (Act, 2017), because members of ASC were substituted by the Interim Government---Validity--Section 230 of Act, 2017 prohibits the Caretaker Government from taking major policy decisions, however, the Caretaker Government is not restrained from performing functions to attend to day-to-day affairs which are necessary to run the affairs of the Government---Decision to initiate the process of appointment of V.Cs. was duly taken by the elected Government and it was during that process that some of the Members of the ASC had resigned---It was the duty of the Caretaker Government to appoint ASC, substituting the Members who had resigned--Advocate Supreme Court had nothing to do with Government as it was apolitical and had only performed its assigned duty---Objection of the Chief Minister to the effect that the Chairman and two Members of the ASC had resigned during the Caretaker Government and no NOC was found on file regarding permission of the Election Commission of Pakistan for constituting new ASC was not according to law---Process for appointment was initiated by the elected Government and thus, it was the policy decision duly taken by the Government---Merely because, some of the Members of the ASC had resigned and their names were substituted by the Interim Government would not amount to policy decision taken by the interim setup within the meaning of S.230 of Act, 2017 as the Caretaker Government was duly empowered to pass any order while running the day-to-day affairs of the Government---Constitutional petition was allowed, in circumstance, and the process of re-advertising the positions of V.Cs. was struck down.

Munawar Hassan v. Chief Secretary, Government of Balochistan and others 2017 PLC (C.S.) 81; Abdul Aziz and another v. Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through Chief Secretary and others 2015 PLC (C.S.) 958; Miss Farzana Oadir v.