The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has said there is no provision in the constitution to extend the period of scrutiny of nomination papers of the contesting candidates for the National and provincial assemblies seats as agreed by the government and Dr Tahirul Qadri in the Islamabad Long March Declaration.
A senior official of the Election Commission told INP on Friday that the government would have to introduce amendments in several articles of the constitution and the Peoples Representation Act to implement the agreement. He said if the amendments were not made before March 16 or before the dissolution of the National Assembly, which ever was earlier, the agreement between the government and Qadri would have no standing and the Election Commission and the caretaker government would not be bound by it.
He said there was a provision of seven days in Article 11 of the Peoples Representation Act 2012 for scrutiny of the nomination papers of contesting candidates, adding in most cases, there was a large number of candidates for contesting elections in just one constituency. The ECP official said the tenure of service of the chief election commissioner and members of the Election Commission had been secured by the constitution. He said they could only be removed either by amendments in the constitution or if they voluntarily resigned.