CEC’s appointment: Babar, Fazal, Arif among PM nominees

ISLAMABAD: The meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Appointment of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has been summoned on Monday to take the matter of the appointment of Chief Election Commissioner and two members of the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Chairperson of the committee and Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari will chair the meeting that will consider the name of two members from the Sindh and Balochistan and names sent by Prime Minister Imran Khan and Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif for the post of Chief Election Commissioner.

Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday sent three names for the office of the Chief Election Commissioner including Fazal Abbas, Babar Yaqoob and Arif Khan while Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif had already proposed the names of Nasir Mehmood Khosa, Jalil Abbas Jilani and Akhlaq Ahmed Tarar for the CEC.

The government and opposition had a deadlock over the matter of selecting two ECP members from Sindh and Balochistan and it was decided in committee’s meeting on Wednesday that the issue of selection of the two members of the ECP and Chief Election Commissioner would be taken together.

Chief Election Commissioner Sardar Raza Khan is going to retire on December 6 and with his retirement, the ECP would be dysfunctional as two posts of members of the ECP from Sindh and Balochistan were already vacant and have only two members from Punjab and Khyber Pukhtunkhwa.

The ECP quorum comprises 3 members and it could not be completed with two members — Justice (R) Altaf Ibrahim Qureshi from Punjab and Justice (R) Mrs Irshad Qureshi and the presence of third member of the ECP is must for the completion of the quorum.