The Islamabad High Court (IHC) Monday disposed of a petition seeking the appointment of chief election commissioner (CEC) and two members of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
A single bench of IHC comprising Chief Justice Athar Minallah heard three petitions filed by two lawmakers, including Senator Mohammad Javed Abbasi and Member National Assembly (MNA) Dr Nisar Ahmed Cheema, and a lawyer Barrister Jahangir Khan Jadoon and issued aforementioned directions. During the hearing, the federal government submitted its reply about appointments in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). The federal government, in its reply, informed the IHC bench that the government and the opposition have agreed over the names of the CEC and two members of the election commission.
Petitioner Ranjha during the hearing said that credit goes to the court for these appointments. To which the IHC Chief Justice replied that the credit goes to the people of Pakistan.
He remarked that the Parliament is a supreme state institution, which has representatives of the people and a strong parliament would make Pakistan strong. Earlier, the IHC bench had suspended a presidential notification of the appointment of two members of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and directed that the matter be solved by the Parliament.
The petitioners including Senator Mohammad Javed Abbasi and Member National Assembly (MNA) Dr Nisar Ahmed Cheema are also members of the parliamentary committee that recommends names of the ECP members.
It was August 22 when President Arif Alvi appointed Khalid Mehmood Siddiqui from Sindh and Munir Ahmed Kakar from Balochistan against the two ECP positions, which had fallen vacant after completion of the terms of Abdul Ghaffar Soomro and Justice Shakeel Baloch (retd) from the respective provinces. The lawmakers had challenged the notification issued by the President for the appointment of Siddiqui and Kakar as ECP members from Sindh and Balochistan, respectively.
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