ISLAMABAD  - Just a few days after an administrative reshuffle in Sindh, the electoral body has again taken exception to the activities of allegedly partisan babus in the province while announcing to ban the transfers and postings of the government officials to and from Sindh.
It has termed the violence against MQM as Sindh's government failure. The poll authority has also taken stock of the use of audibly inappropriate language by the politicians against one another in promotion of their political campaigns, asking them to avoid "criticism based on unverified allegations and distortion of facts."
Reportedly, the decision on banning transfers and postings in Sindh is taken against the backdrop of the reports that the province's Caretaker Chief Minister Justice (Retd) Zahid Qurban Alvi is directly patronising the government servants in an attempt to influence the elections in favour of Pakistan People's Party-Parliamentarians.
"A number of complaints are being received in the commission that in the province of Sindh, postings/transfers of the officers are being made on political pressure which is undesirable because of its adverse effect on fairness and impartiality of the electoral process," a notification issued by the Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan Ishtiak Ahmed Khan said on Friday.
"In exercise of the powers conferred upon it under Article 218(3) of the constitution and all other powers enabling it in that behalf, the election commission has re-considered the matter and has directed that there will be complete ban on transfer/posting of officers/officials of the federal/ provincial/ local governments posted in the province of Sindh," the notification stated.
"The commission has further directed that in case of any exigency of service, prior approval of the commission shall be obtained before any posting/transfer of any officer/official mentioned above is made," it added.
The Sindh's Caretaker Information Minister Noor-ul-Huda Shah, when contacted on Friday, sought time till the evening to comment on the issue.
Upon not hearing from her by the prescribed time, this scribe contacted the minister again but she was not available for comments.
On this month's 11th, the ECP had instructed the Sindh's caretaker government to remove 65 allegedly partisan officers in the province's administrative machinery including the Chief Secretary Raja Abbas who was replaced with Nasir Khosa following an administrative reshuffle in pursuance of the commission's instructions.
This, according to the ECP sources, did not put an end to the politicised activities of the Sindh's government officials.
"There're repeated reports that Zahid Qurban Alvi is strongly supporting PPP-P and is trying to use the province's administrative set up to favour the former ruling party by posting the favourite officials in the interior Sindh," an ECP official said adding that the commission wanted to stop the appointment of the officials with political background, particularly in the interior Sindh.  
In an expression of lack of trust on the Sindh government on Friday, the ECP termed the terrorist attacks against Muttahida Qaumi Movement in Karachi as failure of the province's government. "The commission has, therefore, unanimously condemned the incident and termed it as failure of the government contrary to the assurances given regarding maintenance of law and order in their respective provinces. 
It is worthwhile to mention here that the ECP has, on several occasions, categorically directed the provincial governments to ensure the security of all contesting candidates and political leaders. The electoral body said this in condemnation of the killings and kidnapping of the MQM leaders and Thursday attack on the party's polling office.
Meanwhile, the ECP announcement against personal criticism from the politically rival candidates against one another came a couple of days after the Presidential Spokesman Senator Farhatullah Babar wrote to the Chief Election Commissioner Justice (Retd) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim to have "negative propaganda" stopped against the President Asif Ali Zardari.
Additionally, the leaderships of Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz are engaged in exchanging the notably below the belt statements to promote their political campaigns at the cost of ridiculing each other. "Parties and candidates shall refrain from criticism of any aspect of private life, not connected with the public activities of the leaders or workers of other parties," the commission quoted in a media release the relevant provisions of its Code of Conduct. 
"Criticism based on unverified allegations and distortion of facts shall be avoided. The ECP expects that henceforth the occurrence of such violation will not take place from any contesting candidate or political party, which might necessitate issuance of a directive under the law," the press release added.