Parliament body selects four ECP members

The parliamentary committee in a meeting today nominated four members of the election commission, one from each federating unit. The committee approved names of Abdul Ghafoor Soomro (Sindh), Justice (rtd) Shakeel Baloch, Altaf Ibrahim Qureshi (Punjab) and Irshad Qaisar (KP), to fill the vacancies in the Election Commission of Pakistan.

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).

As per Article 218 (2) (b) of the Constitution of Pakistan, the prime minister and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, after consultation, to recommend a list of 12 names to the parliament committee for selecting four members.

As consensus could not be evolved on names, two separate lists from the government and opposition sent to the committee.

The parliamentary committee comprises of Law Minister Zahid Hamid, Senator Kabir Ahmed Shahi, Senator Islamuddin Shaikh, Senator Daud Achakzai, Junaid Anwar Chaudhry MNA, Arshad Khan Leghari MNA, Dr Darshan MNA, Nawab Yousaf Talpur, Ghulam Mustafa Shah, Shireen Mazari MNA and Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui in a meeting at Parliament House today decided four names of the ECP members from the lists.

PTI chief Imran Khan in his comments over the names of the ECP members expressed his reservations about the members named from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP).

PTI’s Shireen Mazari MNA also abstained from the vote for Punjab and KP members.

Awami National Party (ANP) also abstained from the vote as the party complained that they were not consulted over the matter.

The approved names will be sent to the prime minister to be notified as members of the election commission.