Asghar Khan ruling left no room for ECP to proceed against politicians: CEC

CEC Fakhruddin G Ebrahim says after ruling Constitution does not allow ECP to take legal actions against politicians.

ISLAMABAD: Chief Election Commissioner (ECP) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim said Monday that Supreme Court’s ruling in the Asghar Khan petition has not left any room, according to the Constitution, for the commission to carry out proceedings against politicians involved in rigging the 1990 election, Express News reported.

The Supreme Court had ruled that the election, which brought the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz to power for the first time at the centre was rigged, with the main part in this played by the military, the ISI and then-president the late Ghulam Ishaq Khan — in other words, the ‘establishment’.

Speaking to the media in Islamabad, Ebrahim said that after court’s ruling, a few politicians urged the ECP to carry out proceedings against politicians who were involved in rigging.

Responding to a question Interior Minister Rehman Malik’s dual nationality case, the ECP chief said that the Senate Chairman was supposed to send a reference in the case and that the ECP could only take a decision once it is received.