The political deadlock on appointment of two members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) continues with increasing prospect of the prime minister bypassing direct consultation with the leader of the opposition as required by the constitution and forwarding the names to the twelve member parliamentary committee for a final decision.
The ECP has remained incomplete for more than two months in the absence of "meaningful" consultation between Prime Minister Imran Khan and Leader of the Opposition in National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif, as required under the constitution.
Meaningful consultation in this context has taken the flavour of a partisan definition with the prime minister insisting that he has shared the names with the opposition leader and would forward them to the parliamentary committee after receiving nominees from him.
Kanwar Dilshad, former secretary ECP, told Business Recorder that "meaningful consultation" does not mean that prime minister and opposition leader should meet in person for the consultation process. "The meaningful consultation can be done through a letter as well, but that should be directly between the two of them," he said.
He said the prime minister's letter to the opposition leader through his principal secretary did not fulfill the requirement of the meaningful consultation under Articles 213 and 218 of the constitution.
Under the constitution, the prime minister in consultation with the opposition leader forwards three names for appointment of a commission member to a parliamentary committee for confirmation of one name. In case a consensus cannot be reached between the prime minister and the opposition leader, the law says that each will forward a separate list of the nominees to the parliamentary committee for discussion and finalisation of the appointment.
Senator Mushahidullah Khan of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz said the opposition leader had raised objections at the delay in the consultation process given the prime minister's reluctance to directly contact Shahbaz Sharif for a meaningful process as required by the constitution.
He said the opposition leader would share the names for two separate positions to be considered with the prime minister after the constitutional process was initiated.
Two ECP members - Abdul Ghaffar Soomro from Sindh and former Justice Shakeel Baloch from Balochistan - retired on January 26 and their replacements under the Constitution should have been made within 45 days, by March 12.
The Prime Minister had proposed the names of a lawyer Khalid Mehmood Siddiqui, former justice Farrukh Zia Sheikh, and a retired Inspector General of Sindh Police Iqbal Mehmood, for nomination as a member of the ECP from Sindh.
From Balochistan, the names of Amanullah Baloch, former district and sessions' judge, Quetta; Munir Kakar, a lawyer; and Mir Naveed Jan Baloch, a businessman and former caretaker minister in the provincial government, were nominated.
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