Opposition parties fail to finalise names of ECP members

ISLAMABAD: Leader of the opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah presided a meeting on Wednesday to finalize names of four members for the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Leaders from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Muttahida Qaumi Movement and Awami Muslim League among others participated in the meeting. However the names were not finalized.

Under the Constitution, only the leaders of the House and opposition Nawaz Sharif and Khursheed Shah respectively have the exclusive role in the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and the ECP members.

However, just to avoid needless tussle and confrontation, other political and parliamentary players are also taken into confidence so that all the top office holders of the electoral body enjoy universal consensus. This process also helps in selection of relatively non-controversial and non-partisan figures for the important positions.

Speaking to the media after the meeting Pakistan People’s Party leader Khursheed Shah said that the ECP needs members who are not employees of any group.

PTI leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that the government had failed in dividing the opposition.

The next meeting to select members of the ECP will be held on July 19.

Meanwhile the Supreme Court expressed its displeasure over delay in selecting members of the ECP which has been lying dysfunctional and demanded a reply from the federal government. “The government is not doing its job. How will the country run like this?” the Chief Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali said.

Conscious of the fast approaching deadline of July 25 to make these nominations, the two main constitutional consultees – Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and leader of opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah – are directly or indirectly taking the process forward.

The real stage that may trigger a row will come when the two sides will insist on the acceptance of their recommended names as the ECP members. They will give their separate lists to each other.

The government side has no problem in firming up its nominees because it doesn’t need to consult with anybody for the purpose. 

However, Khursheed Shah faces a different scenario. He has to take on board all the opposition parties, at least nine in the loose alliance that was formed to hold talks with the government on the Panama leaks in the ambit of a 12-member parliamentary committee, if he has to keep the prevailing bonhomie in the grouping intact. He will come out with his recommendations only after evolving a consensus in the coalition.

Every party in this alliance will obviously aggressively try to push its favourite representatives to be inducted as the ECP members.