ECP suspends two officers for negligence

Officials suspended for not delivering copy of an ECP decision to quarters concerned for implementation on time

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday suspended two of its officers for negligence in pursuing a commission’s decision on post-election tribunals.

According to a statement, the ECP had decided on June 22, 2015, to extend election tribunals in Punjab, Sindh and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) up to August 31, 2015.

It was also decided the tribunals may be asked to dispose of the 28 pending cases by August 31, enabling the commission to terminate their contracts by the specified date.

In case a petition was still pending, the high courts concerned would be approached to appoint serving judges for their disposal.

Read: Term of 5 tribunals ends tomorrow

The decision, however, was implemented on August 19, 2015 when the ADG (Legal) wrote to the registrars of the Lahore High Court, Sindh High Court and Peshawar High Court asking for appointing high court judges for disposal of petitions as contracts of tribunals would be terminated by August 31.

This lapse on the part of the officials created trouble for the election authority as LHC declined to entertain ECP’s request at the 11th hour.

An internal preliminary inquiry revealed that Deputy Director Muhammad Saeed and Assistant Director Establishment Section Muhammad Ramzan did not deliver a copy of the decision of the ECP in time to the quarters concerned for implementation.

Hence, the ECP suspended the services of these two officers with immediate effect for a period of three months, and appointed DG admin as inquiry officer to complete the inquiry proceedings.