The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has submitted that appointment of two of its members is violation of Article 213 of the Constitution. The secretary ECP on Thursday filed the reply before the Islamabad High Court in a petition against the appointment of two of its new members wherein it cited the judgments of Supreme Court.
A single bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah conducted hearing of the petition in which the ECP submitted its reply declaring appointment of the two of its new members by the government as illegal. It maintained that the President defied Article 213AB while appointing members of Election Commission. The procedure for appointment of members of Election Commission is mentioned in the Article 214. The nomination of two members of Election Commission does not fall under appointment criteria.
During the hearing, the petitioner's lawyer Jahangir Jadoon told the court that the government has violated the Constitution while making the appointment of the two ECP members. At this, Justice Athar remarked, "Are not you willing to make Election Commission functional? It is an important matter and the Centre should make a decision over it." Jadoon said that all opposition parties have shown objection over the appointments without holding consultation with the opposition leader.
The counsel of the federal government sought 10 days time from the IHC for submitting its written reply. Following his plea, the IHC bench gave the federal government 10 days time for submission of its written reply and adjourned the hearing till October 11.
The IHC bench said in its previous order that the petitioner has sought a writ in the nature of quo warranto challenging appointment of respondent No 4 and 5 as members of the ECP. It noted, "The learned counsel has inter alia, contended that the appointments have been made through notification, dated 22-8-2019, in violation of the unambiguous constitutional provisions of Article 213 (2A) read with Article 218(2) (b) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973. The learned counsel has further stated that due to this grave illegality, the chief election commissioner has refused to administer oath to respondents No. 4 and 5."
The petitioner Jahangir Jadoon challenged the notification of appointment of Khalid Mehmood Siddiqui and Munir Ahmed Kakar as members of the ECP. According to the petition, President Dr Arif Alvi invoked his discretionary powers to appoint both the members while bypassing mandatory consultation of the Prime Minister and leader of the opposition in the National Assembly.
Subsequently, the petitioner prayed to the court to set aside the notification issued on August 22. He made secretary to the President, principal secretary to the Prime Minister, chief election commissioner, Ministry for Law and Justice and both the member-designate as respondents.
The petitioner also requested to hold the implementation of notification issued by Ministry for Parliamentary Affairs regarding appointment of ECP members for Sindh and Balochistan. The Ministry for Parliamentary Affairs had notified the appointment of Khalid Mehmood Siddiqui and Munir Ahmed Kakar as ECP members from Sindh and Balochistan respectively after President Arif Alvi's approval.
Comments
Comments are closed.