ECP appointments: Deadlock between govt, opposition persists

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has forwarded the names of three ex-bureaucrats for the post of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) to the Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif through a letter that includes names of Jamil Ahmed, Fazal Abbass Mekan and Sultan Sikandar Raja.

In his letter to the opposition leader, Prime Minister Imran Khan stated that he is forwarding these names for the CEC for meaningful consultation and hoped for early reply on it.

Jamail Ahmed, a retired bureaucrat has served as secretary Ministry of Inter-Provincial Coordination and other different ministries, Fazal Abbass Maken has served in the different federal ministries as secretary including Interior Ministry and Sikandar Sultan Raja has served in the different ministries as secretary in the tenures of the PPP and PML-N and recently retired as a secretary Ministry of Railways.

With getting the new names, the opposition has started the consultation on the names proposed by Prime Minister Imran Khan for CEC to the opposition.

Earlier, the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Appointment of Chief Election Commissioner and Members of the Election Commission of Pakistan ended without results on Friday and decided to meet again on Monday.

The government came up with three new names for the CEC post. The meeting of committee held its meeting under Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari on Friday.

Though there was understanding between the government and opposition on the names of the ECP members from Sindh and Balochistan, no consensus could be reached between them on the name of the CEC and the government did not present its list of three nominees for CEC to the opposition.

Talking to the newsmen after the meeting o, Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Azam Swati said the name of government’s nominees were in sealed envelope that will be opened during the Monday’s meeting of the committee. “The sealed envelope has been sent to opposition leader by the prime minister,” he said.

He said if the matter was not resolved in the scheduled meeting of the committee on Monday, the other formula will be opted on Tuesday.

Senator Mushahidullah of the PML-N told the newsmen that the government has not forwarded the new names to the opposition for the post of Chief Election Commissioner but the government hinted at giving the new name latter in the day.

However, Senator Mushahidullah Khan said he was hopeful that consensus would be reached between the government and opposition on Monday during the meeting of the committee.

It is to be mentioned here that the government has already agreed on the names of the Nisar Durani as ECP member from Sindh and Shah Muhammad Jatoi from Balochistan.