ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has been functioning without a regular chief election commissioner for 15 months and now the secretariat also appears to be in crisis in the absence of its two most senior officials.

Secretary ECP Ishtiak Ahmad Khan completed his extended term in office on Thursday (November 4) while Acting Additional Secretary Syed Sher Afgan is already on leave to attend a course.

Informed sources said a letter had been written to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat some two weeks ago seeking names of three federal secretaries for appointment as Secretary ECP, which was forwarded to the Establishment Division.

The ECP will approve one of the three names received from the Establishment Division.

The outgoing Secretary ECP Ishtiak Ahmad Khan was originally set to retire on November 2011, but prior to that a summary for a two-year extension was moved by the then Chief Election Commissioner retired Justice Hamid Ali Mirza and approved by the then Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani. After the general elections 2013, he was given another extension of one year.

Many consider Khan as the moving spirit behind the electoral reforms proposed by the ECP between 2009 and 2014.

The computerised voters’ list, photographed electoral rolls and biometric verification system for voters are some of the ideas introduced during his term in office.

The work on electronic voting machines had also started during the time.

Ishtiak Ahmad Khan when contacted expressed his delight that the second package of electoral reforms stands presented to the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms before his retirement.

He hoped that the draft unified election law will soon be made into a law.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2014