ISLAMABAD: Four incumbent members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will retire on June 13 at the expiry of their five-year tenure.
The retiring members are Justice (retd) Roshan Esani (Sindh), Justice (retd) Riaz Kiyani (Punjab), Justice (retd) Fazalur Rehman (Balochistan) and Justice (retd) Shahzad Akbar Khan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa).
The date of retirement of the ECP members is approaching fast but the consultations between the government and the opposition for the appointment of the new ones have not yet started. The leaders of the House (Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif) and the opposition (Syed Khursheed Shah) in the National Assembly have to play the key role in picking up the four ECP members. If they failed to evolve a consensus, the parliamentary committee will come into action to decide the appointments.
According to Article 13-A and B of the Constitution, the prime minister is bound to send three names from each province to a 12- member Parliamentary Committee which will pick one name for appointment as ECP member from the respective province.
The parliamentary committee must have equal representation of opposition and government legislators, eight MNAs and four senators. It may be mentioned that the retiring members were appointed in June 2011 for a five-year term after consultations between the government and the opposition parties according to the procedure as per 18th Constitutional Amendment.
The parliament has recently passed the unanimous 22nd constitutional amendment for appointing ECP’s members under the new procedure. According to 22nd amendment, even a technocrat can be appointed as CEC or ECP member now.
Under the amendment, no serving Supreme Court judge will serve as the acting CEC and the most senior ECP member in age will function as the acting CEC if at any time the office is vacant or the CEC is absent or is unable to perform his functions due to any other cause.
Moreover, out the four new members to be appointed now two would retire after two and a half years while the rest would complete five-year tenure. This procedure would be adopted to ensure that all posts of the ECP members do not fall vacant at same time in future.
