Post- inquiry : ECP to introduce ‘admin changes’

Poll supervisory body says officers will be assigned specific jobs.

ISLAMABAD: In an apparent move to placate its critics, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Tuesday announced it would make long overdue administrative realignments – mostly cosmetic in nature – in the wake of the recent report of a judicial inquiry commission that pointed out flaws on the part of the top poll supervisory body in the last general elections.

Instead of going for some serious soul-searching and fix responsibility, the ECP sprang up a set of proposals envisaging specific jobs for its officers in the future. “The ECP will undergo an administrative reshuffle in which every officer will do a specific job rather than every officer performing every job. There is a need for specialisation in the commission,” ECP’s media wing said in its official statement issued after a meeting of the poll supervisory body.

ECP’s written response came a day after its spokesperson ruled out that any of the commission’s four members would resign as has been demanded by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.

The judicial commission, which had been formed to investigate alleged systematic rigging in the 2013 elections, has given a clean chit to the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) which came to power in the elections.

The commission, headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk, also said the PTI could not come up with any cogent evidence in support of its allegation that the elections were systematically rigged through a design that could have converted PTI’s supposed majority into minority.

However, the commission pointed out many shortcomings on ECP’s part.

“Considering the weaknesses/shortcomings as pointed out in the final report of the inquiry commission on the general elections 2013 in respect of the ECP, a general outline of administrative response was presented before the Election Commission in a discussion on July 27, 2015. According to the aforementioned report following areas require positive action to avert and avoid recurrence of such deficiencies. These are: planning, training, coordination and monitoring,” the handout said.

The ECP claimed that it would undergo an administrative reshuffle but going into details of these decisions makes it clear that it is mere allocation of some new responsibilities to some of its officers. There is no mention of any punitive action or departmental inquiry against any of the officials who failed to perform their duties.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 29^th, 2015.