Islamabad
Members of the opposition on Wednesday approached the Supreme Court requesting it to “pass an appropriate order” in the wake of an impasse in parliament on the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and two members of the Election Commission of Pakistan.
The positions of ECP members from Sindh and Balochistan have been lying vacant following the retirement of Abdul Ghaffar Soomro and retired Justice Shakeel Baloch in January with no consultation between the prime minister and the leader of the opposition until recently.
Eleven opposition members have signed the petition to the Supreme Court, namely Akram Khan Durrani, Ahsan Iqbal, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Nayyar Hussain Bukhari, Farhatullah Babar, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, Muhammad Usman Khan Kakar, Muhammad Tahir Bizinjo, Muhammad Hashim Babar, Muhammad Owais Siddiqui, and Rana Shafiq Khan.
The petition contended that Article 213 of the Constitution is silent over the instance where no consensus is reached in parliament over the appointment. This “will lead to a Constitutional crisis in the country,” it argued.
“The only viable option left would be to approach this August Court,” it added.
Meanwhile, a 12-member parliamentary committee, under the supervision of Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari, on Wednesday resumed its session and deferred the appointment of Election Commission of Pakistan members for a week.
During the meeting, the participants decided to hire Chief Election Commissioner and other members on the same time.
According to sources present in the meeting, the opposition demanded that the government share its nominees for the chief election commissioner’s position before talks can proceed.
The sources said the opposition fears that the government may only appoint members to the two vacant seats for Sindh and Balochistan while keeping the CEC’s chair empty.
They explained that if only the positions of the four members of the ECP are filled, the senior-most from among them may be nominated by the government as acting CEC instead of a regular appointment made in consultation with the opposition.
Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari, who spoke after the meeting, insisted that “consensus was developing” on the appointments.
Mazari, who is chairing the committee, described meeting as “very good” and the talks as “positive”. She said the opposition and government are in agreement that the panel propose the names of the CEC and members together. The minister said a meeting will now be called next week to reach an agreement on names for the three posts.
