ECP may become ineffective from December 7

CEC Justice (retd) Sardar Muhammad Raza's replacement must be appointed before his Dec 6 retirement

ISLAMABAD: Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (retd) Sardar Muhammad Raza has warned the government that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would become ineffective from December 7 if his replacement was not appointed before his retirement on December 6.

According to sources, the CEC has written a letter to the parliamentary affairs secretary in which he has also pointed out that two members of the commission, one each from Sindh and Balochistan, were yet to be appointed.

He warned that with the absence of the CEC and two members, the ECP would not be able to make any decisions.

ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob will also retire in December. If the appointments are not made in time, not only will the local bodies elections be affected but the PTI foreign funding case and other matters will be put off as well.

In August, the parliamentary affairs ministry had notified the appointment of Khalid Mehmood Siddiqui and Munir Ahmed Kakar as ECP members from Sindh and Balochistan respectively after President Arif Alvi’s approval.

The appointments came seven months after Abdul Ghaffar Soomro and Justice (retd) Shakeel Baloch, the ECP members from Sindh and Balochistan, respectively, retired in January this year.

However, the CEC refused to administer oath to the two new members nominated by the government, maintaining that the appointments were made in violation of the Constitution.

In his letter to the ministry, the CEC wrote that the new members were not appointed in accordance with Articles 213 and 214 of the Constitution.

Earlier this month, the Islamabad High Court suspended the presidential notification of the appointment of two election commission members till December 5 on a petition filed by lawyer Jahangir Khan Jadoon.

The ECP contended that the CEC had refused to administer the oath to Siddiqui and Kakar because the president had appointed them without adopting the procedure laid down in clauses 2A and 2B of the Article 213 of the Constitution.

“Under Clause 2A, the prime minister shall in consultation with the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly forward three names for appointment to a parliamentary committee for hearing and confirmation. Clause 2B explains the composition of the parliamentary committee. The president not only violated these clauses but also bypassed the parliamentary committee while making these appointments,” it stated in written response.

IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah observed that elected representatives should make such decision themselves.

On August 27, Jadoon challenged the appointment of ECP’s Sindh and Balochistan members in the IHC and requested it to stop implementation of notification issued by the ministry.

Two lawmakers, Mohammad Javed Abbasi and Dr Nisar Cheema who are members of the parliamentary committee that recommends the names of ECP members, also challenged the appointments.