Local bodies’ poll: JUI-F chief demands permanent ECP head

Maulana Fazlur Rehman clarifies that his party will not join govt as coalition partner.

HYDERABAD:

The chief of Jamiat-i-Ulema-i-Islam- F (JUI-F), Maulana Fazlur Rehman, has asked the government to appoint a permanent head of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). “The ECP is an autonomous institution. It shouldn’t be headed by an interim chief election commissioner (CEC) for the long-term,” said Rehman while talking to media in Sajawal district on Saturday.

The Chief Justice of Supreme Court, Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, on Saturday swore in Justice Nasir-ul-Mulk as the new CEC. Mulk replaces Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani who also led the ECP in the acting capacity after Justice Fakhruddin G Ebrahim’s resignation in July this year. Rehman expressed hope that a permanent ECP should be appointed before the local government elections in January.

Criticising the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf’s (PTI) ongoing sit-in against the drone strikes, the JUI-F leader said the protests are a drama being staged to distract the people from real issues. “The PTI’s government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) did not pass the resolution against drone strikes in the KP Assembly,” he said pointing to a resolution that his party moved in the KP Assembly in early November. The PTI objected to that resolution as it desired to bring a consensus based resolution in the assembly.

Rehman said his party is supporting the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz government as they are making efforts for the economic development and establishing peace in the country. The JUI-F will not join the federal government as a coalition partner, he clarified.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st, 2013.