The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Supreme Court (SC) has declared the appointment of Justice (r) Chaudhry Munir as Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) by Kashmir Council (KC) unconstitutional.
The AJK SC while pronouncing its reserved judgment remarked, “The powers for the appointment of CEC rest with the AJK government, rather than the Kashmir Council. Any person who has already served as CEC cannot be appointed again on the same post.”
A full court bench of the AJK SC, presided over by Chief Justice of AJK Sardar Azam Khan, took up the case for hearing on Wednesday.
Former AJK law minister Rashid Abbasi appeared in the court on behalf of the AJK government. Earlier, two hearings of this case were held and judgement was reserved.
The court remarked that the appointment of CEC could be made only under AJK legislative assembly laws. A serving judge of the high court can be appointed as CEC but any person who has already served as CEC cannot be appointed again as CEC unless he completes a period of two years after retirement.
