PHOTO: AFP
After being directed by the Lahore High Court (LHC) to improve the electoral process, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has moved the Senate election date forward by two days to allow tougher scrutiny of candidates.
Under the revised schedule issued by the ECP on Thursday, the scrutiny of candidates will now be conducted from February 19-20 rather than February 15-16 and the polls will take place on March 5 instead of March 3.
This means the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) now have a week to give their input to returning officers (ROs) before the latter begin scrutinising Senate hopefuls.
The filing of nomination papers, which began on Thursday, is set to conclude today (Friday). Once that phase ends, ECP will forward the details of candidates to the aforementioned government departments in order to screen out those who have defaulted on loans or have been involved in any other form of corruption. The central bank, NAB, FBR and NADRA will then send their input back to ECP, which will forward them to the ROs for the scrutiny process.
The scrutiny of aspiring public representatives has been a contentious issue ever since articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution were amended during General Ziaul Haq’s rule. The amendments introduced ambiguous criteria which largely rely on religious testimonies.
On Wednesday, the LHC summoned the ECP secretary in response to a plea seeking greater transparency in the country’s electoral process. In particular, the petitioner had challenged the format of nomination forms which he argued did not contain any prudent mechanism to screen out corrupt aspirants.
Appearing before the court, Acting ECP Secretary Sher Afgan said the top electoral body would enlist the help of allied government departments which can confirm whether any individual had carried out any corrupt practice in the past. The LHC, in turn, ordered ECP to ensure each candidate is scrutinised properly.
Following the order, ECP revised the Senate election schedule.
To allow for better scrutiny for the Senate election, the opponents of a candidate have also been allowed to file complaints before the ROs.
Ahead of the May 2013 general elections for the national and provincial assembly seats, ECP had vowed it would conduct ‘ruthless’ scrutiny of candidates. However, using the existing mechanism, it failed to do anything substantial and filter out corrupt individuals.
The Senate polls, as such, will be a real test for electoral authorities. Especially as the pool of candidates will be limited compared to the general elections and since senior ECP officials, rather than judges, will perform as ROs. Provincial election commissioners will work as ROs for candidates contesting on the provincial quota, the ECP director general (DG) elections will serve as the RO for the two Senate seats in Islamabad and the commission’s DG administration will supervise polls for the four seats from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas.
The ECP has reserved February 23-24 for candidates whose nomination has been rejected to move appeals. Under the revised schedule, the appeals will be heard on February 26-27. But the ECP still has to decide who will hear them. It is possible that members of the ECP will individually act as appellant authority for a province or the commission as a whole would hear complaints against the decisions of the ROs.
The final list of contestants will be published on February 28.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 13th, 2015.
COMMENTS
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ