Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Fakharud Din G Ebrahim on Monday said the constitution provided no room to the Election Commission of Pakistan for initiating action against politicians involved in the Asghar Khan case.
He was talking to reporters after his meeting with Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry.
“The Supreme Court’s ruling has not left any room for the ECP to proceed against the politicians who rigged the 1990 election,” the CEC said. Ebrahim said no decision could be taken on the eligibility of Interior Minister Rehman Malik in the dual nationality case because no reference had been received from the Senate chairman in this regard so far.
The eligibility issue would be decided after the reference was forwarded by the Senate chairman, he added. To a question on general election, the CEC said he had met the CJP and formally requested him to appoint judicial officers for monitoring the polls. He said the CJP had assured full cooperation on this count.
The CEC once the nomination papers were filed by politicians for the upcoming general election, the first thing that would be decided would be if they were truthful per the constitution. Earlier in the meeting with the CJP, the CEC said there was a broad consensus amongst the civil society, political parties and media for enhancing the credibility of the election process and requested that the district and sessions judges might be appointed as district returning officers in the forthcoming general election. The meeting was held in pursuance of a written request made earlier by the commission to the chief justice for holding next general election under the supervision of the judiciary.
Justice (r) Riaz Kiyani and Justice (r) Shahzad Akbar Khan, ECP members, were also present in the meeting.
The CJP informed the CEC that the National Judicial Policy barred the district judiciary from getting involved in the election process as it distracted the judicial officers from professional duty. However, he assured the CEC that his request and sentiment of the civil society would be placed before the National Judicial Policy Making Committee for consideration in national interest in its meeting on November 3, 2012.
