Pak. poll panel declared autonomous

ISLAMABAD, AUG. 6. Pakistan's military regime has formally declared country's Election Commission (EC) an independent and autonomous body for exercising financial and administrative powers, an EC spokesman said.

``We have received the directives from the Government to act independently for running our financial and administrative affairs,'' the EC spokesman, Mr. Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad, said.

The Law Ministry has been asked to issue an ordinance in compliance with the directives issued by the military ruler, General Pervez Musharraf, during his visit to the Election Commission on May 10 last, he said.

Under the new directives, the Commission would have full powers to re-appropriate funds from one head of account to another within its allocated budget and have ``full powers to sanction expenditure on any item from within the allocated budget and exercise full powers to change nomenclature and upgrade and downgrade any post provided the expenditure is met from within its overall allocated budget,'' Mr. Dilshad said.The Commission has also been granted powers to hold local bodies' elections.

- PTI

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Section  : International
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