FCC rules caretaker govt not authorised to make policy decisions

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) declared that the caretaker government functions merely as a temporary custodian of the State machinery and is not vested with the mandate to formulate or implement substantive policy decisions. Eleven-page judgment, authored by Justice Rozi Khan Barrech, stated, “Its role remains confined to ensuring administrative continuity, maintaining neutrality, and facilitating the conduct of free, fair, and transparent elections. ” “Any act beyond this limited mandate, including permanent appointments, policy decisions, or financial commitments having long-term consequences, would amount to a departure from its lawful sphere and would be amenable to judicial scrutiny. ” It further said that if found to violate the constitutional or legal framework, such actions are liable to be declared ultra vires, void, and of no legal effect. A three-judge FCC bench, headed by Justice Syed Hasan Azhar Rizvi and comprising Justice Muhammad Karim Khan Agha and Justice Rozi Khan Barrech, passed the judgment on the petitions against the Peshawar High Court verdict dated July 7, 2025. The FCC judgment also said that the primary responsibility of the interim government is to attend to the day-to-day affairs of the State and to ensure a smooth, orderly, and transparent transition of power from the outgoing elected government to the incoming elected government after general elections. “Being a temporary, transitional, and non-political setup, the Caretaker Government does not possess the same constitutional mandate as an elected government. Its authority is therefore circumscribed and does not extend to framing or implementing new policies, undertaking long-term development initiatives, making permanent appointments, whether in civil service, public sector institutions, autonomous bodies, or corporations, or entering into binding financial or contractual obligations that may outlive its tenure or prejudice the discretion of the incoming government. ” “Any administrative or developmental measure undertaken by a caretaker setup must be justified by compelling public interest, and even then, such action is permissible only with the prior approval of the Election Commission of Pakistan, to preserve neutrality, transparency, and fairness in the electoral process, ” it added. Quoting the Supreme Court judgment in the case of Khawaja Muhammad Asif vs Federation, the FCC held that the caretaker government is not authorised to make decisions or appointments affecting the working or policies of the future Government, and that it must remain within its limited mandate of election-related and routine administrative functions. The factual matrix, as projected by the petitioners in the instant and connected petitions, is that they were appointed against vacant Class-IV posts in various colleges situated in District Peshawar, during the tenure of the Caretaker Government, vide orders dated June 14, 2023. It is further averred that, thereafter, the Provincial Government enacted “The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Employees (Removal from Service) Act, 2025”, whereby, under Section 3 thereof, all appointments made during the tenure of the Caretaker Government, i. e. , from January 22, 2023 to February 29, 2024, were declared void ab initio on the touchstone of Section 230 of the Elections Act, 2017, on the premise that such appointments were unlawful and without lawful authority. Consequent upon the enactment of the aforesaid Act, Respondent No. 4 circulated a letter dated February 21, 2025, directing all concerned departments to remove such employees from service. In pursuance thereof, Respondent No. 8, namely the Principal, Government Hakeem Abdul Jalil Naqvi Degree College, Gulbahar, Peshawar, issued Office Order dated March 1, 2025, whereby the services of the petitioners were terminated. Copyright Business Recorder, 2026

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