Appointment Of CEC: Govt, Opposition Develop Consensus Over Name Of Sikandar Sultan Raja

(@fidahassanain)

Appointment of CEC: Govt, Opposition develop consensus over name of Sikandar Sultan Raja

Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari confirmed that the both sides developed consensus over the name  of new Chief Election Commissioner.

ISLAMABAD: (Urdu Point/Pakistan Point News-Jan 21st, 2020) The government and the opposition developed consensus over the name of Sikandar Sultan Raja as the new Chief Election Commissioner, Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari confirmed here on Tuesday.

Taking to Twitter, Federal Minister Shireen Mazari said that the parliamentary committee also reached a consensus over the remaining appointments to the Election Commission of Pakistan and had agreed on Nisar Durrani and Shah Mohammad Jatoi as members from Sindh and Balochistan respectively.

The decision would now be forwarded to Prime Minister Imran Khan, she added.

She said: “ Today’s decision is a much welcome one. Parliamentarians have taken a decision which was their responsibility. Parliamentary matters should be decided by the parliament,” said the minister while announcing the decision.

She further said: “We should aim to work in this manner in the future,”.

Earlier, a parliamentary committee meeting took place at the speaker’s chamber under the chair of National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar while Federal Law Minister Farogh Naseem was also present there in the meeting.

Over nomination of Sikandar Sultan Raja, PML-N leader and former Punjab Law Minister Rana Sana Ullah also expressed satisfaction. He said that Sikandar Sultan Raja was an honest, hardworking and descent human being. He also expressed that the next elections would be transparency under his supervision.

On Monday, Shehbaz Sharif presented an amended list of nominees to the government including the name of former attorney general Irfan Qadir in place of former foreign secretary Jalil Abbas Jilani while two other Names included the name of Nasir Mehmood Khosa, brother of former chief justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa, and Akhlaq Ahmed Tarar, a former federal secretary. He wrote a letter and asked the PM to consider the nominees for their appointment as ECP members.

“I request you to consider these nominees in accordance with the binding judgments of the Supreme Court mentioned in his previous letters regarding appointment of ECP members,” wrote Shehbaz Sharif in the letter addressed to Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had proposed three names for the Chief Election Commissioner to Shehbaz Sharif including Jamil Ahmadm Fazal Abbas Maken and Sikandar Sultan Raja. All the three were retired bureaucrats.

In its meeting, the parliamentary committee on appointment of ECP members shared with its members the amended list of the opposition’s nominees received from London. The committee was scheduled to meet again on Tuesday (today) to finalise the decision on the CEC’s appointment.

“We are almost done,” a member of the parliamentary committee said while talking to the reporters.

Fida Hussnain

Fida Hussnain is a lahore based journalist. He writes on politics, religion, social issues and climate change. He is also a research fellow at University of Gujrat.