KARACHI: The appointment of the chief election commissioner (CEC) will become a hot topic for the media in the coming days when the present officeholder retires soon. In accordance with the procedure outlined for the appointment of the CEC in the Twentieth Amendment, the government and the opposition will soon get together to develop a consensus on this issue.
If we go by the Indian experience, nobody will disagree that the job of the CEC is essentially administrative rather than judicial in nature. Two renowned election commissioners of India, namely TN Seshan and MS Gill, who institutionalised the entire election process and laid down the foundation of making the world’s biggest general elections, a fair and peaceful event, were from the civil and police services respectively.
Since in our case, both civil and police services are highly politicised, we should look for other options if a neutral and strong personality is not available within the bureaucracy for the job. A high profile non-controversial retired general will suit our requirements because we always considered army to be a reliable institution to conduct fair elections. People still remember that the only fair elections ever held in the country were under the army’s supervision in 1970.
Abad Ahmad
Published in The Express Tribune, March 24th, 2012.
