ECP fully functional as judges appointed

The president also appoints members of the Council of Islamic Ideology.

ISLAMABAD:

After the appointment of four retired judges of the high courts as members, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has now become fully functional.

According to an official notification issued on Thursday President Asif Ali Zardari on the advice of Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani appointed Justice (retd) Fazalur- Rehman (Balochistan), Justice (retd) Shahzad Akbar Khan (Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa), Justice (retd) Riaz Kayani (Punjab) and Justice (retd) Muhammad Roshan Essani (Sindh) as members of the commission in the four seats that had been lying vacant since last year.

The 18th amendment to the Constitution, passed last year, had changed the nomenclature of the ECP, under which rather than serving judges, retired judges of High Courts from each of the four provinces would serve as members of the commission.

Under the new law, the powers of the chief election commissioner have been transferred to the commission as a whole, which includes four members and one chief commissioner.

The appointment of members of the commission had been a contentious issue since last year. The government claimed that the delay in these appointments was due to differences with the opposition since a parliamentary body with equal representation from both the treasury and the opposition has to approve the nominations put forward by the prime minister.

Quite recently, the Supreme Court of Pakistan had given the government an ultimatum to complete the commission immediately and warned that further delay would raise serious questions over the government’s intentions.

A Parliamentary Committee on the appointment of the chief as well as the members of the election commissioner in its meeting on June 1 had confirmed the names of the four retired judges as members of the ECP.

President Zardari has also appointed new members to the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII). Like the ECP, CII is also a constitutional body meant to recommend amendments to laws to make them in conformity with Shariah laws.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 10^th, 2011.