Finalising candidates: Shah set to share ECP picks with Dar on 11th

PTI vice chairman accuses govt of apathy in making body functional

ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah is likely to meet Finance Minister Ishaq Dar on Monday and hand over the names of prospective members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), it was learnt here on Friday.

The government is expected to propose four names on ECP to the opposition leader on July 11.

The finance minister will be handed over a total of 12 names – three each for every vacant post.

The issue of appointment of election commission members was put off until the premier returns to the country.

Meanwhile, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) suggested holding a broad-based dialogue among all opposition parties – including ones which had no representation in the 12-member parliamentary committee on the appointment of election commission members – before finalising the names for the new ECP.

“Our party has requested the opposition leader to hold a grand opposition meeting after Eid over the issue,” PTI vice-chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi told The Express Tribune.

The parliamentary committee has yet to hold its first formal meeting.

“The government does not seem interested in … making the top electoral body functional. The situation is hurting the political process in the country,” Qureshi said.

Qureshi is also a member of the 12-member parliamentary committee on appointment of election commission members.

Two opposition parties, the PTI and PPP, have recently filed references separately with the incomplete ECP seeking disqualification of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif under articles 62 & 63 of the Constitution primarily for concealing assets and misstatement before the commission. PAT, which has no representation in parliament, also filed a similar reference with the ECP.

“A number of important matters, including three references against the PM, by-elections on five constituencies and incomplete local bodies’ elections were pending before the non-functional ECP,” Qureshi said, adding that electoral process should not be delayed at any cost.

The ECP had become non-functional with the retirement of its four members on June 13. Constitutionally, these slots should be filled within 45 days of vacancy.

A meeting of the parliamentary committee, for finalising names of ECP members, was held on June 17. The agenda of the sitting was limited to election of committee’s chairman. The committee unanimously elected Information Minister Senator Pervaiz Rashid as its chairman.

The prime minister, in consultation with the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, will forward three names against each post to a 12-member parliamentary committee for their formal endorsement. If no consensus is achieved, deliberations are to be held on names put forward by both the government and the opposition.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 9^th, 2016.