For the first time in Pakistan, a bureaucrat has been chosen as Chief Election Commissioner, a development in line with the reality that conducting elections is mainly an administrative exercise. In India, the election commission usually comprises retired IAS and IRS officers. Despite the massive size of electorate and differing polling timelines the outcomes of electoral exercises in India are largely accepted. It was probably the Indian example that triggered the move for the 22nd Constitutional Amendment in Pakistan, which has removed the condition that only retired judges would be appointed as ECP members, and also took away powers of Chief Justice of Pakistan with regard to acting as Chief Election Commissioner. It has changed the eligibility criterion as it envisages that a retired judge of High Court or a senior retired bureaucrat or a technocrat should be considered for the ECP appointments. But that being happily done a functional election commission must now change its working culture or outlook. Strangely, the ECP took as many as 18 months to suspend the membership of MPs who had not submitted their statements of assets and liabilities. The ECP is also required to come clean on the circumstances that had frozen broadcast of polling results from some constituencies during the 2018 general election. Another issue that deserves to be settled for good is the law and order situation at polling stations. A plausible answer to oft-repeated question whether or not troops be posted inside or outside polling booths should be discovered at the earliest. But the issue the opposition is much keen about is the case of foreign funding of parties, particularly of ruling Tehreek-e-Insaf. Giving timely verdicts on complaints that come before the commission would certainly help it restore its somewhat tarnished image.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020