LAHORE: Contractual employments, frequent extension in services and ad hoc arrangements to run the day-to-day affairs have marred the independence of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The ECP record reveals that the authority’s most powerful officer, Secretary Ishtiak Ahmed Khan, is soon to exhaust his second two-year extension in his job, while the provincial election commissioners of three of the four provinces continue to serve the institution on a contract after their retirement a couple of years ago.

The decisions of the Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) taken in July last are yet to be notified and four posts of BPA-21 (DGs of budget, local government, training and general) are being manned under interim arrangements. As if this was not enough, the director-general (administration) of the ECP was drawn from the Establishment Division on deputation notwithstanding the fact that the DG would be answerable to the prime minister and not the chief election commissioner (CEC).

The maximum action the ECP or the CEC can take against the DG (administration), in case of any misconduct or violation of rules, is to surrender him to his parent department.

Muddassir Rizvi, the CEO of Free and Fair Election Network, a coalition of 41 civil society organisations working to strengthen all forms of democratic accountabilities in Pakistan, says “ad hocism” as well as filling of important vacancies including the one of secretary at the ECP is definitely compromising its independent working.

Ad hoc working deprives ECP of its potential

In order to separate the ECP from the executive, the former should be autonomous in appointments of its officials, making its budget and framing its rules, he says, but laments that the ECP lacks on all the three fronts.

He says since 2008 they have been raising the issue of establishing a specific cadre for the ECP but no attention is being paid to the important matter concerning transparency in the electoral exercise.

There is no doubt that ad hoc and contractual postings and giving the government a say in the appointments at least dilutes independence of the ECP, asserts Ahmed Bilal Mehboob, executive director of PILDAT, a think-tank focused on political and public policy research and legislative strengthening.

The incumbent (ECP) secretary has been appointed and given extension in service by the prime minister and not by the Election Commission or the CEC in accordance with the service rules, he adds.

Posting of retired officers, he believes, promotes incompetence in an institution. In the absence of a system for appointments the Election Commission has become a “club of retired people” as most of those holding important positions in the institution are from among the retired lot.

To ensure transparency in its working the ECP should make agendas and decisions, if not minutes, of its meetings public, the Fafen CEO demands but is disappointed to see the election authority’s “poor” response in this respect.

Mr Rizvi also objects to the way the CEC, the ECP members and the provincial chief election commissioners are appointed. He suggests that like in the recently formed parliamentary electoral reforms committee, all parties having representation in the National and provincial assemblies should be given a say in the selection of these election officers.

The suggestion, he says, has been forwarded to the parliamentary committee for consideration and inclusion in the likely electoral reforms.

Mr Mehboob apprehends that expanding the scope of selection will make decision-making difficult. However, the opposition leader, whether in the National or provincial assemblies, should consult other political colleagues before giving names for the election offices.

Published in Dawn, October 4th , 2014