SC moved to resolve looming ECP crisis

The Supreme Court has been requested to pass an order to resolve 'constitutional' crisis that may occur in view of tenure of incumbent Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) former Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan, which ends tomorrow (Friday).

Leaders of opposition parties, including Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl), Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan People's Party, Awami National Party, Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Qaumi Watan Party, Jamiat Ulema Pakistan and Markazi Jamiat-e-Ahle-e-Hadees on Wednesday approached the Supreme Court under Article 184(3) of Constitution.

After the completion of tenure of Justice Raza, the Election Commission of Pakistan with only two members would become defunct so that on the one hand no election or by-election can take place while on the other the cases pending before it will not proceed so practically a constitutional body will be non-functional. They stated that according to Article 218 of Constitution, four members of the ECP are appointed one from each province by the President of Pakistan. However, out of four members, two have retired on January 26, 2019 but the replacement has still not been made.

The matter of appointments of two members of ECP had come to the parliamentary committee but when the consensus was not being reached, the President of Pakistan had arbitrarily appointed the two members of ECP through a notification and as a consequence, the CEC refused to administer them oath and subsequently the Islamabad High Court suspended the Presidential notification.

The dispute before the court is a result of silence of the Constitution in a situation where the government and the opposition are unable to reach a consensus over appointment of the CEC and members in the ECP.

They contended that the respondent No 1 (secretary law) is so negligent that he, in the case of re-appointment or extension to the tenure of COAS, failed to perform his duty in accordance with law as such the matter came before the apex court which vide short order dated 28.11.2019 resolved the issue.

They said in view of the retirement of current CEC, there will be a constitutional crisis and the august court will eventually have to adjudicate upon this issue, therefore petitioners are left with no other option but to invoke the extraordinary jurisdiction of the Supreme Court under Article 184(3) of the Constitution.