ECP remains dysfunctional going into 2020

CEC, Sindh, Balochistan posts remain unfilled at end of busy year for Commission

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) disposed of over 100 pending cases during the year 2019. It also held elections for the 16 provincial seats in the erstwhile Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and published a report on the 2018 General Elections as well as all the details of its next five-year plan until 2023. In addition, it sent its annual performance report to parliament for the first time.

However, the appointments of two Election Commission members, those from Sindh and Balochistan, could not be made in 2019, a year in which the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the Election Commission Secretary also retired. In short, the year 2019 has been a busy year for the ECP.

The ECP has a five-member panel consisting of a member from each of the four provinces plus the Chief Election Commissioner. For eleven months now, however, it has been without its Sindh and Balochistan members. After the Chief Election Commissioner’s retirement, therefore, it has become dysfunctional with only two members currently on the panel.

The ECP last year handled the case of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan’s (TLP) Faizabad sit-in and allowed Maryam Nawaz to conditionally hold a post in her party. The Commission also issued notices to members of parliament directing them to submit their returns.

In 2019, the ECP’s scrutiny process continued in the foreign funding case against the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in which the PTI has appeared 50 times while the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) have appeared with their lawyers about 20 times each.