Election Commission suspends three senior officers over 'misconduct, inefficiency'

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has suspended three senior officers over "misconduct and inefficiency'.

The officers have been suspended for 120 days as part of an ongoing inquiry.

Those suspended include the Director of Administration and Provincial Election Commissioner Sindh, Azhar Hussain Tunwari, Karachi Election Officer, Khuda Bux, and Provincial Election Commissioner Sindh, Sharifullah.

A notification from the ECP confirmed that the officers will remain in Karachi during the inquiry and until further orders are issued.

ECP's probe aims to investigate allegations of misconduct and inefficiency within the commission's Sindh offices.

Last week, the Punjab irrigation secretary suspended from service four officials of the department, including superintendent engineer (SE), executive engineer (EXEN) Head Taunsa Barrage, and two subdivisional officers (SDOs), for corruption and negligence.

SE Zahid Nawaz Mitro, EXEN Head Taunsa Barrage Umair Sadaqat, while two SDOs Mohammed Asif and Ghulam Akbar were found involved in corruption, negligence and misconduct.

They were suspended for a period of 90 days under section 6, Peeda Act of 2006.

Sources said the officials had been involved in corruption as they spent Rs300 million on plugging breach in RD 34000.

Yesterday, the ongoing face-off between parliament and the Supreme Court escalated as National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq issued a forceful letter to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), urging it to respect parliamentary sovereignty in the allocation of reserved seats to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

The letter came on the heels of an apex court judgment that had ruled that independent candidates, after winning elections, could join political parties and alter their political allegiance followed up by a note released by eight SC judges directing ECP to implement the judgment at the earliest.

On July 12, the Supreme Court declared PTI a parliamentary party and held that PTI was eligible to get reserved seats that were earlier distributed among other parties in the national and provincial assemblies.

However, in response, parliament passed the Elections (Second Amendment) Act, 2024, which imposes new restrictions on party-switching by independent candidates and overrides the Supreme Court’s ruling. The bill was tabled by PML-N MNA, Bilal Azhar Kayani.