Parliamentary committee meeting delayed for two days

ISLAMABAD: Parliamentary committee which was scheduled to meet on December 9, to finalize names for the appointment of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and other members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), will now meet on December 11.

According to sources, the parliamentary committee will meet at 2:00 in Islamabad on December 11.

Earlier the meeting was scheduled to be held at 2:30pm on December 9.

READ MORE: Parliamentary committee meeting to be held on Dec 9

According to details, the presence of three out of five members is needed for smooth working of the commission.

Earlier on Wednesday, a 12-member parliamentary committee, under the supervision of Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari, had deferred the appointment of ECP members for a week.

It is to be mentioned here that the government and the opposition forwarded their nominations for the appointment of ECP members.

Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser and chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjarani, who then forwarded it to the parliamentary committee for consideration.

READ ALSO: ECP appointment: Parliamentary committee to meet today

Earlier, PM Office had raised objections on the names recommended by opposition leader Shehbaz Sharif for the appointment of Chief Election Commissioner.

The suggested names were Nasir Mehmood Khosa, Jalil Abbas Jilani and Akhlaq Ahmed Tarar.

Jaleel Abbas Jilani remained the principal secretary of former premier Nawaz Sharif and worked as chief secretary Punjab under CM Shehbaz Sharif.

Nasir Mehmood Khosa is considered close to the Sharif family and Akhlaq Tarar has also worked as a federal secretary.

Shehbaz Sharif maintained that PM Imran should have initiated this process of consultation a long time ago. I am starting this procedure to prevent the ECP from getting non-functional, the PML-N leader added.

The letter by PML-N president also comprised three names each from Sindh and Balochistan for their nominations as the ECP members.

READ MORE: ECP appointment: Parliamentary Committee to meet tomorrow

From Sindh, the opposition leader had recommended Nisar Durrani, Justice (retd) Abdul Rasul Memon and Aurangzeb Haq.

The names of Advocate Supreme Court Shah Muhammad Jatoi, former advocate general Muhammad Rauf Atta and Rahila Durrani were also proposed from Balochistan.