As elections loom, ECP is left shorthanded

Nine out of 10 grade 21 posts vacant, several junior officers working on grade 20, 19 posts

ISLAMABAD: At a time when the general elections are just two-and-half months away, apex elections supervisory body is facing acute shortage of senior grade officers.

Severity of the shortage can be gauged from the fact that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has nine out of ten grade 21 posts vacant.

Similarly, several other posts of grade 20 and 19 posts in the election commission are either vacant or junior officer are working on them with temporary charge. This puts a big question mark on efficient working of the top electoral supervisory body, especially when it would be going for the biggest electoral exercise of the country.



The ECP on Tuesday appointed Zafar Iqbal Hussain, the only grade 21 officer it had, as new provincial election commissioner in Punjab -- the province which usually determines the government in the centre.

In the rest of the three provinces, joint election commissioners -- grade 20 officers -- are working as provincial election commissioners.

Zarfar Iqbal was senior most among the ECP officers after secretary ECP Babar Yaqoob Fateh Muhammad. He was working at additional secretary training, research and evaluation at the ECP headquarters.

The ECP had given Sharifullah, additional provincial election commissioner Punjab, charge of the provincial election commissioner. With the appointment of Zafar Iqbal, the ECP would now have a grade-21 officer heading the provincial election commission at least in Punjab.

The provincial election commissioner -- the senior most officer of the ECP in the province -- is a grade 21 post. Due to shortage of senior staff, grade 20 officers, who are originally joint election commissioners, have been working as provincial election commissioners in the rest of the three provinces.

“Among those, two of them -- the provincial election commissioner of Balochistan and Sindh -- qualify to be promoted in the next grade,” ECP sources said.

Even if the ECP promotes those two officers, it would again be left with a junior officer holding the office of the provincial election commissioner in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa in the next general elections due in July this year.

After Hussain’s transfer to Punjab, the important seat of additional secretary (training, research and evaluation) has fallen vacant at the ECP headquarters.

The ECP has two sanctioned posts of additional secretaries. In addition to additional secretary training, research and evaluation, the other grade 21 post is: additional secretary elections and administration.



Currently the post is being held by an official who is originally a grade 20 officer. The incumbent was commissioner of a district before his services were hired by the ECP a few months ago.

In addition to the grade 21 posts, there are several posts of grade 20 and 19 that are still vacant in the ECP. In many grade 20 posts, officers of grade 19 are working with ad hoc charge and grade 18 officers at grade 19 posts.

The situation is not only bleak at the ECP central secretariat, but also in its provincial chapters. More than half a dozen district election commissioners, who are grade 18 officers, are working with the additional charge as regional election commissioners -- a grade 19 post.