Law Minister Farooq Naik on Wednesday said neither the chief election commissioner (CEC) nor any other member of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) could be removed from office by the legislature or the government. After chairing a meeting called to discuss the issue of reformation of the ECP in pursuance of the decisions taken in the Islamabad Long March Declaration, Naik said the constitution envisaged security of tenure for the CEC and the commission’s members that could not be taken away without an amendment in the constitution, which might itself be controversial and unattainable.
He said the committee considered various aspects of the matter and after deliberating over the relevant constitutional provisions, there was a consensus that neither the CEC nor any member of the ECP could be removed from office by an executive order. The law minister said Article 218 provided for the composition of a permanent election commission for the purpose of holding elections to both Houses of parliament and the provincial assemblies, adding that it implied that the ECP could not be dissolved by any legislative or executive action.
