ISLAMABAD: The government has finally initiated the process for appointment of new members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) in place of the current four, who are set to retire in June.

Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmed told Dawn on Tuesday that his ministry had recently sent a letter to the National Assembly Secretariat, requesting the speaker to constitute a parliamentary committee — as required under the Constitution — to finalise the names of the four ECP members, one from each province.

The minister said the ministry had req­uested Speaker Ayaz Sadiq to form the committee as soon as possible because it was left with very little time in which to develop a consensus amongst all parties over the na­­mes of new ECP members, who will rep­la­­ce the ones retiring in the second week of June.

In a related development, the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms, headed by Law Minister Zahid Hamid, on Tuesday discussed the possibility of introducing a constitutional amendment before the retirement of the present members, so that the new members could be nominated under new criteria. The committee has already decided to change the qualification criteria for the chief election commissioner (CEC) and ECP members.

Law minister proposes bill to change members’ qualifications before incumbents retire

The committee realised that if the new ECP members were appointed under the existing criteria, they would stay in office for five years and they would also be responsible for holding the next general elections in the country, scheduled for 2018.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, Mr Hamid said members had been told to ask their respective leaderships whether they wanted the amendment to be passed as part of the entire electoral reform package, or as a bill seeking simply to change the qualification criteria for ECP members before the current lot retires.

At present, only serving or retired judges of the Supreme Court or a high court are eligible to be appointed to the posts of CEC and ECP member. The committee, however, has already agreed that people from other walks of life should also be considered eligible for these positions.

This proposal had initially been floated by Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah, who had called for changing the qualification criteria and suggested that lawyers, bureaucrats or politicians with good repute should also be eligible for important constitutional positions in the ECP. Mr Shah made the suggestion after he and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif struggled to reach a consensus over the name of a new CEC, due to the limited choices in 2014.

Articles 213 and 218 of the Constitution outline the process of appointment of the CEC and ECP members, respectively.

The prime minister, in consultation with the opposition leader in the National Assembly, is required to forward three names each for appointment to every vacant position of ECP member “to a parliamentary committee for hearing and confirmation of any one person”.

In case, there is no consensus between the prime minister and the opposition leader, each of them shall forward separate lists to the parliamentary committee for consideration and confirmation of any one individual.

“The parliamentary committee to be constituted by the speaker shall comprise 50pc members from the treasury benches and 50pc from the opposition parties, based on their strength in [parliament], to be nominated by the respective parliamentary leaders,” says Article 213(2B) of the Constitution.

The total strength of the committee shall be 12 members, of which one-third should be from the Senate.

Published in Dawn, April 27th, 2016