Temporary post: Justice Jamali takes oath as acting CEC

Outgoing chief justice, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, administers oath to new acting chief election commissioner.

ISLAMABAD: In the absence of a full-time office holder, the top job at the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was temporarily given to Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali on Thursday. Justice Jamali is the 31st acting chief election commissioner (CEC) of the country. He is the third consecutive acting CEC in less than a year, since Justice (retd) Fakharuddin G Ebrahim resigned on July 31st last year. The outgoing chief justice, Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani, who himself worked as acting CEC after Ebrahim quit the post, administered the oath to the new acting chief election commissioner. The acting commissioner serves as head of the commission in addition to his normal duties as Supreme Court judge. The ECP has been run by successive governments mostly on ad hoc basis since its establishment in 1956.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4^th, 2014.