Vacant Office: NA speaker sets up panel to appoint CEC

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq has re-constituted three parliamentary committees, one of them to recommend the chief election commissioner and nominate members of the Election Commission of Pakistan.

The two other parliamentary panels including the committee for the appointment of the National Commission on the Status of Women chairperson, and the committee on the appointment of the National Commission for Human Rights chairperson and members.

The committee comprises members of the Senate and National Assembly, half of them from the treasury benches and the remaining from the opposition. The members have been nominated by parliamentary leaders.

The office of the CEC fell vacant on July 31 when Fakhruddin G Ebrahim left after a Supreme Court order that changed the presidential elections schedule.

Since his resignation, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jilani is the acting CEC.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 4^th, 2013.