ISLAMABAD: Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja has disclosed that his family and the families of the members of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) were “subjected to life threats” and “publicly harassed.”
“When this reached a point of no return, the commission was forced to start contempt proceedings against the contemnors and notices were issued. Yet again, stays were granted even on issuance of show cause notices, although there were no final orders against which the stay could be issued,” the CEC stated in his separate letters to Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani and Speaker National Assembly Raja Pervez Ashraf.
The CEC, in the letters, opposed the power of the president to fix a date for the general polls, saying this was against the spirit of the constitution and the powers granted to the ECP under Article 218(3) of the constitution.
“The commission, under the constitution, is the sole arbiter to decide as to whether conducive circumstances exist to conduct the elections or not. This mandate is not subordinate to any authority,” the CEC asserted.
He mentioned that the judgments of the Supreme Court dated March 1 and April 5 “divested the ECP of its constitutional powers to determine as to whether conducive environment in facts and circumstances, exists for the conduct of polls in a given time, to meet the standards mentioned in Article 218(3).” The CEC, in the two letters, proposed amendments in Sections 57(1) and 58(1) of the Elections Act 2017— and that these amendments be placed before the parliament for its consideration—to empower the ECP to pick a date for general polls.
The proposed amendment in Section 57(1) suggested that the commission shall announce the date or dates of the general elections by notification in the official gazette and shall call upon the constituencies to elect their representatives.
The proposed amendment in Section 58(1) suggested, notwithstanding anything contained in Section 57, the commission may, at any time, after the issuance of notification under sub-section (1) of that section, make such alterations in the elections programme announced in that notification for the different stages of the election or may issue a fresh election programme with fresh poll date(s) as may, in its opinion to be recorded in writing, be necessary for the purposes of this act.
The existing Section 57(1) of Elections Act 2017 provides that the president shall announce the date or dates of the general elections after consultation with the commission.
The existing Section 58(1) provides that notwithstanding anything contained in Section 57, the commission may, at any time after the issue of the notification under sub-section (1) of that section, make such alterations in the election programme announced in that notification for the different stages of the election or may issue a fresh election programme as may, in its opinion to be recorded in writing, be necessary for the purposes of this act: Provided that the commission shall inform the president about any alteration in the election programme made under this sub-section.
The CEC stated that the commission’s writ was “systematically challenged on several occasions — in practice, ECP’s authority has been eroded.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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