After seven months, ECP gets two new members
- By Web Desk -
- Aug 22, 2019
ISLAMABAD: President Dr. Arif Alvi appointed on Thursday two new members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), ARY News reported.
Khalid Mahmood Siddiqui and Munir Kakar have been appointed as ECP members from Sindh and Balochistan respectively, according to a notification issued by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs.
The two seats of ECP members fell vacant after Abdul Ghaffar Soomro and retired Justice Shakeel Baloch — the commission’s members from Sindh and Balochistan — retired in January this year.
The government is required to appoint their successors within 45 days of their retirement.
The delay was apparently caused by a lack of consensus between the government and opposition on the appointment of ECP members as meetings of a parliamentary committee comprising members from both the sides ended in a stalemate.
While the Constitution is silent in case of a deadlock in the parliamentary committee, the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on Political Affairs Naeem ul Haque had last month announced the PTI government’s decision to move the Supreme Court.
It is pertinent to mention here that Chief Election Commissioner retired Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan would retire in the first week of December as the term of two other sitting ECP members would also end in June 2021.