Awaiting verdict: ECP members rebuff calls for stepping down

Say SJC competent forum for deciding such matters


Our Correspondent September 01, 2015
PHOTO: FILE

ISLAMABAD:


Members of the top poll supervisory body have refused to step down from office after rejecting all the allegations levelled against them.


On Saturday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan had demanded that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) members resign by October 4, with the warning that his party would stage a sit-in outside their office if they did not quit by the deadline set by their party. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) formally backed the PTI’s demand the same day, saying the PPP would not contest any by-elections held by the incumbent commission.



On Monday, however, in an informal meeting headed by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (retd) Sardar Raza Khan and attended by all the four ECP members – Justice (retd) Roshan Ali Essani from Sindh, Justice (retd) Riaz Kiani from Punjab, Justice (retd) Fazlur Rehman from Balochistan and Justice (retd) Shehzad Akbar Khan from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa – the commission decided as an institution to wait for the verdict of the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC), where the matter is currently pending.

The PTI has been concentrating its efforts on forcing the ECP members to quit office after the post-election tribunals declared polling in three National Assembly constituencies null and void.

A statement issued by the ECP said the meeting deliberated at length over the political parties’ demand that the supervisory body’s members step down from office.

“For the reason that [the ECP members] have been systematically ridiculed and stigmatised with false and baseless allegations of rigging ... it was decided that since the PTI’s lawyers forum has already filed a reference in the SJC, which is the proper and competent forum for deciding such matters, the members will not take any decision about their resignation until the SJC’s verdict.”

While the PTI is adamant about the ECP members’ ouster, the party has shown little sign of boycotting either the by-polls or the local government elections.



Instead, PTI has announced the names of the candidates it is fielding for the upcoming re-elections.

However, CEC Raza Khan has made it clear that the ECP is a constitutional institution and that its members will not tender their resignations under pressure from any politician.

He said that so far no evidence had surfaced against the ECP members. If the politicians have any evidence against the members, then they should take the constitutional route and approach the SJC, he added. “The ECP is a constitutional institution, and it will continue to play its constitutional role.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1st, 2015.

 

COMMENTS (6)

Usman | 8 years ago | Reply The call for resignations has not come out of thin air, it has come after publication of the report of the judicial commission, and after proven irregularities in the said constituencies, both matters, of utmost importance to the small matter of free and fair elections
Donkey kong | 8 years ago | Reply @AIR: If that is the case we will never be able to have a functional ECP, as the losing candidate will tarnish the ECPs members and blackmail them into resigning.
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