Daily Times

After several months of back and forth about key appointments to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), the government and opposition have decided to name Sikandar Sultan Raja as the new chief election commissioner, Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari confirmed on Tuesday.

The minister added that the parliamentary committee had also reached a consensus on the remaining appointments to the ECP and had agreed on Nisar Durrani and Shah Mohammad Jatoi as members from Sindh and Balochistan, respectively.

Mazari added that decision would now be forwarded to Prime Minister Imran Khan. “Parliamentarians have taken a decision which was their responsibility. Parliamentary matters should be decided by the parliament,” said the minister while announcing the decision.

“We should aim to work in this manner in the future,” she added.

The meeting of the parliamentary committee took place at the speaker’s chamber under the chairmanship of National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar. Federal Law Minister Farogh Naseem also participated in the meeting.

Speaking to the media, PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah said, “Sikandar Sultan Raja has worked with us for an extended period of time in Punjab. He is an honest, hardworking and decent human being. I hope that now the ECP is able to ensure transparency in the next general elections.”

Former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that he hoped that all three of the new appointees are able to do justice to the job.

MNA Shahida Akhtar Ali stated that all three of the names were approved without any opposition. “Consensus on appointments to the ECP is a win for both politicians and the parliament.”

The move comes a day after Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif sent an amended list of the opposition’s nominees to the government.

The only amendment in the opposition’s list of three nominees was the addition of former attorney general Irfan Qadir in place of former foreign secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani. The other two names were the same – Nasir Mehmood Khosa, brother of former chief justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa, and Akhlaq Ahmed Tarar, a former federal secretary.

“It is unfortunate that the process which I had initiated on 25th of September 2019, fulfilling my duty/responsibility under Article 213 (2-A) of the constitution, has been subject to unnecessary, inordinate delays and a consensus has not yet been reached. While the revised panel proposed by you […] is under consideration, in the meantime I would request you to consider the following list of nominees, which have been revised keeping in view changes in the status of the original nominees since the consultation process started,” read the opposition leader’s letter to the PM.