ISLAMABAD: The devious scheme to render the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) dysfunctional has finally succeeded as none of the three key appointments has been made. The ECP will be out of action, incapacitated after the retirement of incumbent Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Justice (R) Sardar Raza after two days on December 6.
Old-timers say this is the first time that the ECP will become inoperative. This will lead to stoppage of all sorts of activities that the electoral commission is required to undertake under the Constitution.
As predicted since long, the parliamentary committee that has equal representation of the ruling alliance and opposition parties failed to take a decision on the selection of the two ECP members to represent Sindh and Balochistan.
The two vacancies exist since January, and no meaningful effort has been made to fill them. The consultative process to pick up the new CEC is yet to be launched as Prime Minister Imran Khan has not so far given his three choices. However, leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif has proposed the names of three retired top bureaucrats – Nasir Mahmood Khosa, Akhlaque Tarar and Jalil Abbas Jilani – who generally enjoy good reputation.
The exercise will proceed further only after the premier will come out with his preferences. He is averse to holding consultations with the opposition leader. However, he can send his recommendations direct to the parliamentary committee instead of talking to Shahbaz Sharif.
It is unclear as to when the new CEC and the two ECP members will be appointed with the parliamentary committee chairperson Federal Minister Dr Shirin Mazari saying after its second session that all the three nominations will be taken up next week and a decision will be taken.
Without waiting for the outcome, the opposition parties have knocked at the doors of the Supreme Court for interpretation of Article 213 of the Constitution. However, as the petition will be heard in the apex court, the parliamentary committee can still decide on the new CEC and ECP members.
The Constitution is silent on how to break the deadlock between the two chief consultees and in the parliamentary committee on the appointment of the CEC and ECP members. A real stalemate and crisis has occurred, reflecting politicians’ failure to resolve it.
The confrontation and lack of communication between the government and the opposition over the past 16 months has resulted in this crisis. Inside the parliamentary committee, every side pushed to choose its nominees as the ECP members in the absence of a spirit of “give and take”.
Under the Elections Act, the CEC, though the administrative head of the ECP, doesn’t have any special powers that he used to enjoy earlier over the ECP members. The act made him equal to every ECP member.
Now, it is the ECP and not the CEC that takes all decisions. The ECP means the CEC and its four members representing as many provinces. In the old law, the CEC used to be all powerful.
While striking down the appointment of two ECP members by the government ignoring the proposed names of the opposition leader, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had tasked National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar and Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani to carry out the exercise for the requisite nominations and submit a report to it by December 5.
They did make efforts but were unable to bypass the constitutional process. They got the proposed names from the prime minister and opposition leaders for the ECP members and forwarded them to the parliamentary committee. They played the role of post office only.
Article 213 says there will be a CEC, who will be appointed by the President. No person will be appointed to be CEC unless he has been a judge of the Supreme Court or has been a senior civil servant or is a technocrat and is not more than sixty-eight years of age.
Civil servant means the one who has served for at least 20 years under the federal or a provincial government and has retired in Grade 22 or above. Technocrat means a person who is the holder of a degree requiring conclusion of at least 16 years of education, recognised by the Higher Education Commission and has at least 20 years of experience, including a record of achievements at the national or international level.
According to the article, the prime minister will, in consultation with the opposition leader, forward three names for appointment of the CEC to a parliamentary committee for hearing and confirmation of any one person. However, in case there is no consensus between them, each will forward separate lists to the committee for consideration which may confirm any one name.
The committee to be constituted by the speaker will comprise 50 per cent members from the treasury benches and 50 percent from the opposition parties, based on their strength in Parliament to be nominated by the respective parliamentary leaders. Its total strength will be 12 members out of which one-third shall be from the Senate.