ISLAMABAD: A serious process to evolve a consensus on the selection of two new members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has been launched for the first time.
As government and opposition parties are apparently earnest to work out an agreement, the course adopted through the bipartisan parliamentary panel to pick up the ECP members has so far been smooth and controversy-free.
The 12-member forum has equal representation of the two sides. Given their numerical strengths, they are required to reach a decision on the principle of give and take as none can impose its will on the other. They are aware of the fact that if they fail to appoint the ECP members unanimously or through a majority, there will be a deadlock and the Constitution is silent on how to break the stalemate.
Sanity prevailed in the government, though belatedly, when it agreed to dispense with its unilateral decision of having a majority in the committee in violation of the letter and spirit of the constitutional provision concerned and amid the opposition parties’ protest and boycott of its proceedings.
Now, the panel has equal representation of the government and the opposition. The chairpersons of parliamentary and standing committees do not cast their votes if voting is held on an issue before them. They cast their votes only in case of a tie. Federal Minister Dr Shirin Mazari heads the present forum.
The government repeatedly changed the composition of the committee to have its majority. Finally, it has deleted Federal Minister Azam Swati who is facing proceedings in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for his incendiary remarks against the electoral body, and re-inducted Pakistan Muslim League-Q (PMLQ) Senator Kamil Ali Agha after the coalition partner protested against his exclusion. Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhry, who has also been arraigned by the ECP for his contentious comments on it, still figures in the committee.
The first serious in-camera discussion held in the parliamentary committee a few days back broke ground. No dispute transpired. The forum meeting on Monday is likely to arrive at a consensus on the names of the two ECP members to represent Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP). For the past several weeks, the ECP has been working with just two members apart from Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja. The 45-day deadline to fill up the two vacancies, occurring on July 26, has already passed.
To initiate the constitutional process of consultations for nomination of the two ECP members, Prime Minister Imran Khan had written a letter to the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif, proposing three names for each vacancy. The opposition leader had rejected these recommendations and suggested his own nominations. The consultations ended at this point as the prime minister did not deem it fit to continue them further. Instead, he referred his and the opposition leader’s proposed names to the parliamentary committee for a decision.
If the government and the opposition hammer out an agreement on ECP appointments, it will not be the first time to do so. At the time of selection of the incumbent CEC and two current ECP members, they had evolved a consensus on their names. Before that, they had been locked in an intense bickering for a long time. When they were still quarrelling on the choice of the two ECP members, the CEC post had fallen vacant. They then took all the three nominations together and reached an accord on all of them in one go.
Prior to that, the two ECP members unilaterally notified by President Arif Alvi, bypassing meaningful and result-oriented consultations with the opposition, had been struck down by the Islamabad High Court (IHC), declaring them illegal and unconstitutional. The IHC had directed NA Speaker Asad Qaiser to talk to the two sides for a consensus. The process had culminated in success