Parliamentary committee to deliberate CEC’s appointment

ISLAMABAD: The parliamentary committee meeting is scheduled to be held today over the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and other members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The meeting will be held in the Parliament House at 2:00 pm. Human Rights Minister Shireen Mazari will chair the committee where the nominations for appointment of the CEC and members of the ECP will be discussed.

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During the meeting, six names recommended by the federal government and the opposition for the appointment of  CEC will be discussed. 

The federal government has proposed three names of civil servants, Babar Yaqoob, Fazal Abbas, and Arif Khan,  for the coveted post.

Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif has sent three recommendations to Prime Minister Imran Khan for the post of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).

Shehbaz recommended the names of former bureaucrat Nasir Mahmood Khosa, former ambassador to the United States Jalil Abbas Jilani, and retired civil servant Akhlaq Ahmad Tarar.

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The recommended names for members of the ECP are Justice (retd) Sadiq Bhatti, Justice (retd) Noor-ul-Haq Qureshi and Abdul Jabbar Qureshi for Sindh, while for Balochistan, the names of Dr Fayez Mohammad Kakar, Mir Naveed Jan Baloch and Amanullah Baloch were proposed.

The government was required to appoint their successors within 45 days of their retirement. The delay was caused by disagreements between the government and opposition on the appointment of ECP members as meetings of a parliamentary committee comprising members from both sides ended in a stalemate.

Justice (retd) Sardar Raza retired as the CEC on December 6 after completing his tenure, but the government has not announced any replacement.