To settle pending issues regarding tenure, salary, perks and privileges of members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) who were appointed in June this year under the 18th Amendment, the Law Ministry has sent ‘The Members Election Commission (oath of office, term, salary, allowances, perks and privileges) Bill of 2011” to the Cabinet Division for approval, in which the ministry has proposed a two-year term for the members.
The proposed bill was supposed to be reviewed by the federal cabinet in its meeting scheduled for Tuesday (October 25), which was postponed because of the passing of Nusrat Bhutto. The proposed bill is likely to be vetted by the federal cabinet in its next meeting.
In the summary, a copy of which is exclusively available with Pakistan Today, the Law Ministry says that as no provision has been made in the constitution or any law regarding oath of office, resignation, tenure of office, terms and conditions of the services of members of the ECP, the ministry has drafted a bill in consultation with the commission.
On the term of office of the members, the bill proposes that a member shall hold office for a term of two years from the day they enter their office; a member shall not be removed from office except in the like manner and on the like grounds as a high court judge, as provided in Article 209 of the constitution, and a member may, by writing under their hand addressed to the president, resign from their office. Under the post-18th Amendment constitution, the tenure of the chief election commissioner is five years.
HIGH COURT JUDGE: The draft bill says that a member shall be entitled to the same salary, allowances, perks and privileges as a high court judge. On Provident Funds for ECP members, the bill proposes that a member may, at their option, become a subscriber to the General Provident Fund and, if they so opt, shall subscribe to the fund as a compulsory subscriber according to General Provident Fund (Central Services) Rules.The government, after due approval of the Parliamentary Committee on Election Commission, had appointed on June 9 four retired high court judges as members of the ECP, namely Justice (r) Fazal-ur-Rehman (Balochistan), Justice (r) Shahzad Akbar Khan (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Justice (r) Riaz Kayani (Punjab) and Justice (r) Muhammad Roshan Essani (Sindh).
But the delay in notifying their term, salary, perks and privileges by the government was severely criticised by National Assembly Opposition Leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan in a press conference last week, in which he alleged that the government wanted to keep the ECP under pressure for its vested interests.
Upon finalizing the names of the Members ECP, the Govt. and the Parliamentary Committee had unanimously announced that the term of office of the Members of ECP shall be (5) five years. However, the Ministry of Law has now recommended to the Cabinet Division that such term should instead be reduced to (2) two years for the reasons best known to it.
Almost in all countries around the world, the minimum term of office of the Members of Election Commission is not less then 5 years.
Even the term of office of the Chief Election Commission of Pakistan as envisaged in the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan after passage of 18th Amendment has been increased from (3) three years to (5) five years.
The unanimous decision on the formation of an independent election commission is no doubt a major achievement of the parliamentary panel, but now forwarding recommendations to reduce the term of service from five years to two years is deplorable and puts a question mark on the law ministry.
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