ECP appointments: Govt, opposition agree on members from Sindh, Balochistan

ISLAMABAD: The government and opposition have agreed on the names of members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from Sindh and Balochistan and the announcement will be made after getting a consensus on the name of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).

The meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Appointment of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is scheduled to be held today (Friday) in which the government will present the new name of its nominee for the Chief Election Commissioner to the opposition formally for consideration.

According to sources, the names of the ECP members have almost agreed as both the opposition and government wanted to make announcement along with the name of Chief Election Commissioner.

The sources said the name of Nisar Durrani for the post of the ECP member from Sindh, which was proposed by the PPP and the name of Shah Mehmood Jatoi from Balochistan has been agreed between the government and opposition. Now in the meeting of the Parliamentary committee, the name for the post of the Chief Election Commissioner likely to be finalised and all the names for the key posts would be announced simultaneously after reaching consensus. As under the agreed formula, the government has accepted the nominees of opposition for the posts of ECP members from Sindh and Balochistan and opposition will pick the name for CEC from the government list.

The government after the opposition refusal on the name of ECP ex-secretary Babar Yaqoob, the government is expected to bring name of Sikandar Sultan Raja in place of Babar Yaqoob.