Appointment of two ECP members: Sanjrani, Qaiser, others vow to resolve issue amicably

Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani, Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser and key government functionaries have agreed to 'amicably' resolve the issue of the appointment two members of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) by engaging opposition and using the forum of the Parliament.

In this regard, the chairman Senate and the speaker NA held consultations with Law Minister Farogh Naseem, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Azam Khan Swati and Attorney General for Pakistan Anwar Mansoor Khan on Tuesday before reaching consensus to contact senior leaderships of opposition parties to resolve government's deadlock with the ECP and opposition parties over two ECP members' appointment whereby the opposition parties are supporting the ECP's stance.

A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senator told Business Recorder that the government's ministers have assured Sanjrani and Qaiser of the treasury benches' complete support in resolving the issue. The chairman Senate and the speaker NA had also met earlier on Monday last to discuss the same issue.

Three options that were discussed in the meeting to resolve the government's deadlock with the ECP and opposition; to summon the respective sessions of the Senate and the National Assembly to discuss the appointment of the two ECP members, to summon a joint session of the Parliament to deliberate on the matter; and to form a designated committee headed by either the chairman Senate or the speaker NA to propose the names of the two ECP members, Business Recorder has learnt.

Since August this year, the ECP and the federal government have been locked in a tiff after Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) former Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza refused to administer oath to two ECP members Khalid Mahmood Siddiqui from Sindh and Munir Ahmad Kakar from Balochistan, citing the violation of Constitution in the appointment of these two members by President Arif Alvi on August 22, 2019.

On October 14, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) had directed that the issue of the two ECP members' appointment be sent to the Parliament. During the proceedings of a related case, the court had observed the chairman Senate and the speaker NA should play their role in resolving the deadlock between the government and the ECP over the two members' appointment.

One Barrister Jahangir Khan Jadoon moved the IHC against the appointment of two ECP members. The CEC in his written reply to IHC stated that they had been appointed by the president without following the procedure laid down in clauses 2A and 2B of Article 213 of the Constitution.

The Article 213 reads, "(2 A) The prime minister shall in consultation with the leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, forward three names for appointment of the commissioner to a parliamentary committee for hearing and confirmation of any one person.

"(2B) The Parliamentary Committee to be constituted by the Speaker shall comprise fifty percent members from the treasury benches and fifty percent from the opposition parties, based on their strength in Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament), to be nominated by the respective parliamentary leaders:

"Provided that in case there is no consensus between the prime minister and the leader of the Opposition, each shall forward separate lists to the parliamentary committee for consideration which may confirm any one name."

In the light of relevant constitutional provisions, the criteria for the appointment of the CEC and the four ECP members (one member is appointed from each province) are the same and the CEC and ECP members are appointed for five years with half of the members (two out of four) tend to retire after 2.5 years.

However, consensus failed to be reached between the PM and leader of the Opposition in NA over the appointment of the two ECP members following which the matter landed in the related parliamentary committee. Despite considering several names, the parliamentary committee too failed to reach consensus on appointment of the two ECP members.

In the backdrop of this rift, uncertainty shrouds the fate of the ECP with CEC retiring in the first week of the coming December and consensus is unlikely to be reached in near future between Prime Minister Imran Khan and Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif over the appointment of new CEC.

In January this year, two ECP members Abdul Ghaffar Soomro from Sindh and Shakeel Baloch from Balochistan had retired following the completion of their five-year respective terms. In accordance with relevant constitutional provisions, the new ECP members were required to be appointed within 45 days.

After almost eight months, the President approved the appointments of Siddiqui and Kakar as ECP members from Sindh and Balochistan respectively in August before the CEC refused to administer oath to the two members citing constitutional violations in their appointment.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2019