ISLAMABAD: Secretary of the Election Commission of Pakistan Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad admitted on Monday that the local government elections held recently in Islamabad, Punjab and Sindh were flawed.

He told the Senate’s Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs that courts should not have powers to take up electoral issues after announcement of the poll schedule.

But Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmad rejected the stance and said he himself was a victim of a one-sided ECP decision and finally he received relief from a high court.

PPP’s Saeed Ghani was presiding over the meeting.

The ECP secretary said the commission could not hold the local government elections according to its own plan because the polls were to take place within the deadline set by the Supreme Court.

“The things would have been better had the schedule been announced by the ECP,” he said.

He said it also needed to be seen if the ECP should conduct local government polls or keep itself confined to organising the general elections.

The ECP secretary said a planning group had been formed for the 2018 general elections and work would be started six months in advance.

He said brothers of various candidates had been appointed as presiding officers in the local government elections and the ECP did not know it. There were some shortcomings because the staff were untrained, he added.

He said the courts ordered fresh delimitation in 24 hours which was practically not possible. The courts should not order changes in the ballot papers a day before the polling, he said.

He said the ECP should be the final authority for deciding electoral matters and pointed out that high courts gave orders even on appointment of returning officers and other polling staff.

He complained that the government and parliament never focused on problems faced by the ECP. “The people who criticise us should see the constraints we have to work with.”

He said there should be a deadline for challenging election-related matters before the courts because the entire electoral process suffered as a result of a last-minute court order.

He said the constitution should be amended to provide for appointment of sitting high court judges as ECP members.

But the committee turned down the proposal.

PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar said: “Do not surrender your space to the judiciary. We respect courts but should not be misled by the illusion that judges alone can cure all ills or that they have answers to all questions.”

He noted that there were civil servants and other professionals, both men and women, of great integrity and competence who were eminently qualified to serve as ECP members. The functions of ECP members were more administrative in nature than judicial. “We should not shrink the space for competent administrators and professionals.”

Senator Babar said the constitution should be amended so that people like retired civil servants and journalists could be appointed as members of the ECP. Being a retired high court judge should not be a condition for appointment on an administrative position.

He said it should be decided once and for all whether or not parliament should have powers to oversee the functioning of ECP.

He recalled that a former parliamentary committee on electoral reforms headed by Jehangir Badr had received two letters from the ECP asserting that the commission was an independent institution and parliamentary oversight was not acceptable.

The ECP secretary said the issue stood resolved now and the current parliamentary committee on electoral reforms had been informed that parliament could oversee ECP’s functioning.

Chairman of the committee Saeed Ghani suggested that the ECP should prepare the election schedule so that sufficient gap was available between its announcement and the polling day so that any litigation could be addressed.

He said the ECP had prepared the code of conduct for political parties without consulting them.

Sheikh Aftab Ahmad said the ECP required a lot of reforms. He regretted that the sensitive work of delimitation and preparation of electoral rolls was assigned to people of agricultural department.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2015