In my view, political parties should have nothing to do with selection of CEC, instead SC should appoint a CEC
RAWALPINDI: One fails to understand as to why a candidate for the chief election commissioner (CEC) must be proposed by one or the other political party as anyone proposing someone would certainly have a political interest in doing so, which will hinder the fairness and transparency of the exercise.
In my view, political parties should have nothing to do with the selection of the CEC and instead, the Supreme Court should appoint a person to this post. The CEC need not be a retired judge only and could be any honest, capable and proficient person with an impeccable character, known patriotism and a penchant for hard work. He/she should be energetic, absolutely firm and fair. He/she can be a retired or serving bureaucrat, a defence personnel or an academic — more so because conducting elections is more of an administrative task. One does not need to sit in judgment over the contesting candidates and political parties, for which judicial staff can always be in attendance to assist the CEC where required.
If we have fair and transparent elections contested by honest and selfless politicians, Pakistan has the potential to become one of the most advanced nations of the world in a very short time.
Colonel (retd) Riaz Jafri
Published in The Express Tribune, November 8th, 2014.
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