CEC’s appointment: Opposition leader seeks three-month reprieve

Plea filed for an extension to the deadline in SC

ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khurshid Ahmad Shah on Monday appealed for a three-month extension in the Supreme Court deadline for appointing a permanent chief election commissioner.

The appeal came barely a day before the court’s deadline was to expire.

On October 14, the SC gave the federal government two weeks to appoint a permanent CEC, warning that if that was not done it would withdraw Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali from the position of acting CEC.

Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, who was appointed the 13th CEC, resigned on July 30, 2013. Justice Jamali is the third consecutive interim chief of the ECP in less than one year. Earlier, Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk and his predecessor Tassaduq Hussain Jillani had served as acting CEC.

Under Article 217 of the Constitution, the chief justice can appoint any judge of the SC as acting CEC. Justice Jawwad S Khawaja was offered the slot in July, this year, but he had excused himself.

During the last hearing, Attorney General Salman Aslam Butt assured the court that the appointment of a permanent CEC would be made within 30 to 35 days. The bench, however, insisted that the government fill the constitutional post within two weeks. Now the court will take up the matter on October 30.

Two senior parliamentarians and lawyers Aitzaz Ahsan and Raza Rabbani have filed an application for an extension to the deadline in the apex court on behalf of Leader of the Opposition Khurshid Shah.

The application notes that Article 213 (2A) of the Constitution provides that the prime minister in consultation with the leader of opposition in the NA shall forward three names for the appointment of commissioner to a parliamentary committee for hearing and confirmation of one of any one them, adding that those who could be referred for confirmation have been mentioned in Article 213 (2).

“The ‘consultation’ to be effective, meaningful and consensus-oriented always requires more time especially when the ‘office’ of the appointee is constitutional and/ or as important and independent as that of ‘chief election commissioner’,” the application states.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 28^th, 2014.