A parliamentary committee in a meeting on Monday finalised four names as members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The committee nominated four members of the election commission, one from each federating unit. The committee formed to appoint the chief election commissioner and ECP members nominated Justice retd. Shakeel Ahmed Baloch as the ECP member from Balochistan, retd Federal Secretary Abdul Ghaffar Soomro from Sindh, Justice retd. (Mst) Irshad Qaiser from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Justice retd. Altaf Ibrahmi Qureshi from Punjab, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid told media personnel on
The five-year tenure of the four members of the ECP was expired on June 12, this year leaving the election commission virtually non-functional.
The federal government and the opposition had sent 12 names each on Friday after failing to reach over consensus. The names nominated by the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader were sent to the Chairman, Parliamentary Committee for selecting four names (one from each province).
The Supreme Court had earlier asked the government to honour its constitutional mandate by appointing personnel to the vacant posts within a stipulated period of 45 days, which ends on July 27.
The bench had taken a Suo moto notice of the ECP becoming non-functional since the commission was unable to perform duties assigned to it under the Constitution and the electoral laws because of completion of the term of four of its members.
As consensus could not be evolved on names, two separate lists from the government and opposition were sent to the committee. The committee in a meeting at the Parliament House today decided four names of the ECP members from the two lists.
Awami National Party Senator Daud Khan Achakzai abstained from voting on the appointments, claiming his party was not consulted, while Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf MNA Shireen Mazari abstained from voting on the ECP posts for Punjab and KP.
The parliamentary committee that nominated the members includes Law Minister Zahid Hamid, Senator Mir Kabir Ahmed Shahi, Senator Islamuddin Shaikh, Senator Daud Khan Achakzai, MNA Muhammad Junaid Anwar Chaudhry, MNA Muhammad Arshad Khan Leghari, MNA Dr Darshan, Nawab Yousaf Talpur, Ghulam Mustafa Shah, MNA Shireen Mazari and Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui.
A summary will be forwarded to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif today. The final notification decision rests with President Mamnoon Hussain.
