Fresh plea in SC against CEC: PHC had dismissed same lawyer’s petition a year ago

ISLAMABAD: Exactly a year ago, a petition filed by a lawyer against the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) was rejected by the Peshawar High Court (PHC). The same lawyer has now submitted a plea against the CEC in the Supreme Court.

Advocate Ali Azeem Afridi’s petition will be heard by a three-member bench headed by Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Mansoor Ali Shah and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar on Sep 15.

Last September, the PHC had dismissed the petition against the constitutional amendment which had allowed the appointment of a retired senior civil servant or a technocrat as the CEC.

The plea had sought an order to declare the appointment of Sikandar Sultan Raja, a former senior civil servant, unconstitutional. Afridi had claimed that the relevant provision was in conflict with the Constitution.

He had argued that his grievance revolved around Section 4 of the Constitution Twenty-Second Amendment) Act, 2016, to the extent of allowing the nomination of a senior civil servant and a technocrat as the CEC by treating them on par with that of a Supreme Court judge and on that score, enabling them to supervise the role of a high court judge while acting as a member of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) under Article 218(2)(b).

The CEC’s lawyers, Barrister Sarjeel Swathi and Khurram Shehzad, had contended that the petition was not maintainable and was liable to be dismissed. They said the petitioner was not an aggrieved person in terms of Article 199 and added that a constitutional amendment passed by parliament couldn’t be struck down if it was challenged by a single individual. Afridi couldn’t prove any mala fide on the part of the legislature for enacting that amendment, they said.

The proposal to select Sikandar Sultan Raja as the CEC had come for the first time in a letter written by Prime Minister Imran Khan to the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif on Jan 15, 2020.

The premier had stated in his letter that “in order to have meaningful and result-oriented consultations and as another attempt to resolve this longstanding issue”, he proposes the revised panel comprising three names – former federal secretaries Sikandar Sultan Raja, Jamil Ahmed and Fazal Abbas Maken.

Imran Khan had referred to his earlier letter of Dec 4, 2019, with regard to three nominations for the appointment of the CEC under Article 213 (2-A) of the Constitution.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) supremo Nawaz Sharif had asked his party not to put forward the name of Sikandar Sultan Raja for the post of the CEC but if it was proposed by the government, it should be accepted. Before Sikandar Sultan Raja’s nomination had formally surfaced, the two sides had developed an understanding, though informally, to choose him for the slot. Thus, he had been named as the CEC unanimously.

As railways minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed in a letter addressed to the prime minister on Oct 21, 2019, had said “taking into account his tireless endeavours over the last one year in the railways, he would very much like to retain Sikandar Sultan Raja as the railways secretary after his retirement on Nov 30, 2019”. “However, if the same is not administratively possible, I personally request and strongly recommend him for a post of member of the Federal Public Service Commission or as head of any autonomous federal organization. He shall prove his worth in any such assignment.”

Sheikh Rashid had also written: I take this opportunity to pen a few words of recommendation of Sikandar Sultan Raja, the current railways secretary. He is a diligent, focused, honest and extremely hardworking officer, who has been an invaluable asset in my quest to convert the Pakistan Railways into an efficient-cum-profitable service provider to our nation. He has been working on very important positions and has always delivered. He has an unblemished career and is an honest, pious and efficient officer, a rare combination of qualities available among officers these days.

Sikandar Sultan Raja, who had taken oath as the CEC in Jan, 2020 for a five-year term, is currently under fire from the government after some 20 months in office and cabinet ministers have issued calls to him to resign, accusing him of having become biased against the government and in favour of the opposition parties.

The government, which was already uneasy about the ECP decision on the Daska by-poll, the Commission’s response filed in the Supreme Court on the secret/open ballot in the Senate elections etc., became exasperated over its 37 objections to electronic voting machines (EVMs) submitted to the Senate standing committee on parliamentary affairs.

Under Article 215, the CEC or an ECP member cannot be ousted from office by the government or any other authority. His exit is possible only through a procedure spelt out in Article 209, which is applicable for the removal of a superior court judge.