After months of the dead Air and no movement in the key electoral appointments, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif extended an Oliva branch to the opposition leader of the National Assembly, Omar Ayub, inviting him to consultations about the appointment of a new electoral commissioner (CEC). In a letter, the prime minister declared that the term of the CEC, as well as that of two other ECP members, ended on January 26. However, the three have continued their duties under article 215 of the Constitution. He said that, according to article 218, the proposals for the CEC and its members must be submitted to the parliamentary committee. The letter occurs when the constitutional logjam has been killing since January, since the terms of five years of CEC Sikandar Sultan Raja, the member of Sindh Nisar Durrani and the member of Baluchistan, Shah Muhammad Jatoi, ended on January 26. The process, clearly established in article 213, requires a consensus between the prime minister and the opposition leader. In the event that there is no agreement, both parties will be supposed to send separate lists of three names to a bipartisan committee of 12 members, which would then choose one and send it to the president for formal appointment. However, the process has been accumulating dust. Although the seats of the CEC and two members expired in January, the Government allowed the constitutional deadline of 45 days for the new appointments, which expired on March 12, coming and going without resolution. The impasse now rests at the foot of both the treasure and the opposition, and none of the sides makes a serious contact to the letter of the prime minister. On the other hand, the Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf (PTI) has already taken the government to the courts in March. A petition presented in the Superior Court of Islamabad by Ayub and the opposition leader of the Senate, Shibli Faraz, criticizes inaction as a constitutional violation. He appoints the Federal Government, the President of the Senate, the President of the National Assembly and the ECP as respondents. The petition urges the Court to force the president of the National Assembly to constitute the Parliamentary Committee required and asks the president of the Senate to provide names of the senators for the same. In addition, he asks the court to order the prime minister to make significant consultations with AYUB, as required in article 213, and declare the continuous presence of the CEC and two members expired as illegal. Constitutional experts point to the 26th amendment, which altered article 215 (4) to allow offices holders to continue "Until the successors are designated". Both the opposition and the observers claim that the amendment is a legislative patch about executive indecision, especially when the key positions destined to guarantee fair elections remain in limbo. Of the four members of the ECP, only the representatives of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Babar Hassan Bharwana and Justice (RETD) Ikramullah Khan, still have valid holdings, both that extend until mid -2027. It is worth noting that the mandate of Cec Sikandar Sultan Raja has been full of policy fields. The opposition parties, particularly the PTI, have accused it of everything, from the poor management of the elections to open partisanship. He has been criticized for not guaranteeing timely elections and for stripping the PTI of his iconic ‘Bat’ symbol before the 2024 surveys. The ECP has also been criticized for not implementing the verdict of the Supreme Court on reserved seats and for not holding Senate elections in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Federal.
PM writes to OPP to confer the new CEC
