Sonu Khan Baloch. PHOTO: FILE
While speculations about the army chief’s extension of the service ran rife for weeks, the higher officials who are actually getting extension in term are the election commissioners of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P).
Punjab Election Commissioner Mehboob Anwar will be reaching superannuation on December 20, 2013. The term of his counterpart in K-P Sonu Khan Baloch will also come to an end this year.
The summary for one-year extension in the service of these high officials has already been put before the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for approval, sources privy to the development told The Express Tribune.
The ECP says the provincial election commissioner is a 21 grade position and there is scarcity of competent officers in the ECP bureaucracy which compels it to extend the services of these seasoned officials.
Sonu Khan Baloch was removed from office of Sindh Provincial Election Commissioner in December 2012 on charges of ‘bias’ while compiling voter lists in the province. He was transferred to the central secretariat and was appointed provincial election chief in the K-P the next week.
Baloch has already availed three – two one-year and one of two-year – extensions. He will be the only official in the ECP’s history to get a record fourth extension and be in service after the fifth year of his retirement. Before him, Kanwar Dilshad, a former secretary, had availed extensions for four years.
The ECP has been without a permanent CEC since the former chairman Justice (Retd) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim resigned a day after July 30 presidential elections.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 8th, 2013.
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