ECP, an independent body?

Letter April 19, 2012
Sindh High Court stopped ECP from holding by-elections on provincial assembly seat

KARACHI: The election commissioner of Sindh, Sono Khan Baloch, called for a by-election on the seat of former chief minister of Sindh Dr Arbab Ghulam Rahim. However, the Sindh High Court stopped the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from holding the by-elections on the provincial assembly seat that had become vacant after Dr Rahim’s membership of the provincial assembly had been cancelled.

After the Twentieth Amendment to the Constitution had been passed, all political forces that were behind the amendment had declared that the ECP had now become an independent body. However, the decision of the Sindh High Court tells us a different story and indicates that the ECP, is by no means, truly independent.


Mubashir Mahmood


Published in The Express Tribune, April 20th, 2012.