Not a task to be ignored
The government has at several times surrendered its turf to other institutions out of sheer ineptitude or negligence to perform what was required from it on time. The most recent example is its failure to initiate the process to appoint a new Chief Election Commissioner. With Justice (retd) Hamid Ali Mirza retiring on Friday, and a new CEC not appointed, Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was constrained on account of the 20th Amendment to nominate Supreme Court judge Justice Shakir Ullah Jan as acting chief. This is likely to affect the performance of an already overburdened Supreme Court.
The CEC has to be immediately nominated because the elections are scheduled to take place within months while important steps on the part of the Commission in the direction have yet to be taken. Despite the SC having set the deadline of February 23 for the correction of the voters list, the task has yet not been completed. The EC has yet to prepare a model code of conduct for the candidates and undertake the delimitation of the constituencies. In the presence of a vigilant judiciary, an independent EC and a vibrant media, the public at large expects the elections to be genuinely free and fair. Any suspicion of the elections having been stolen can cause a countrywide uproar and lead to agitation which would bode ill for national economy. What is needed at this time is a vigilant and active EC under a dynamic chief.
The process of appointing a new CEC is complicated and time consuming. The matter requires a consensus between the prime minister and the leader of the opposition, failing which it has to be decided by a parliamentary committee. So far there are no signs of a move being made in the direction.
The CJ has pointed out that if the new CEC is appointed in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, the nomination of the senior judge of the apex court shall be deemed to have been withdrawn without any consequences. Keeping in view the task that lies before the EC, the government needs to initiate the process of the appointment of a permanent CEC at the earliest.
