ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan is set to become functional as a parliamentary committee on Monday confirmed the names of four new ECP members — one from each province.

Chairman of the Parliam­entary Committee on Appoin­tment of ECP Members and Information Minister Senator Pervaiz Rashid told reporters after a meeting of the 12-member committee that names of retired Justice Altaf Ibrahim Qureshi (Punjab), Abdul Ghaffar Soomro (Sindh), retired Justice Irshad Qaiser (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) and retired Justice Shakeel Baloch (Balochistan) had been finalised from the lists of names submitted by the government and the opposition.

Though the law for the appointment of ECP members has recently been amended to make retired bureaucrats and technocrats eligible for their appointment as ECP members, three of the four members picked for the positions have a judicial background. Only Mr Soomro, member from Sindh, doesn’t have a judicial background. He is a former federal secretary.

Shireen Mazari of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), who represented Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the meeting, abstained from voting on the names of members from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Soon after the meeting, PTI chairman Imran Khan regretted in a tweet that the appointment of ECP member from Punjab had been made without considering PTI’s recommended name of Tariq Khosa.

“Punjab choice of Elec Comm shd. have been made with unanimity & esp with 2nd largest party PTI, on board as last EC collaborated in rigging,” he tweeted.

The names approved by the parliamentary committee will be sent to the prime minister followed by the issuance of a formal notification.

The Chief Election Commissioner, retired Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza, will administer the oath to the newly appointed members after the issuance of a formal notification.

The Supreme Court had set a deadline of July 28 to the government for the appointment of ECP members, warning that it would not be allowed to play with the issue.

The term of the ECP members is five years, but two of them as a one-time exercise will retire after two and a half years. According to the law, ECP members should be appointed within 45 days after the end of terms of their predecessors.

Though the deadline set by the Constitution and the apex court has been met, experts believe that there is still a flaw in the law. According to them, the process for the appointment of ECP members should start 45 days prior to the retirement of sitting members.

A heavy workload awaits the newly appointed ECP members as phases of local governments’ elections and by-elections for some national and provincial assembly seats had been put on hold till the appointment of new members following retirement of four members on June 12.

Important petitions, including foreign funding case against the PTI and disqualification references against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, the prime minister’s son-in-law, retired Captain Mohammad Safdar, and other members of his family are pending with the non-functional ECP.

Besides, the commission will have a key role to play in the electoral reforms process and plans for introduction of electronic and biometric voting machines to authenticate voters’ identity at polling stations.

Profile of new members

Retired Justice Altaf Ibrahim Qureshi, nominated ECP member from Punjab, was born in Multan on March 6, 1953. He belongs to a lawyers’ family as his father late Haji Mushtaq Ahmad Aqil was also a prominent advocate of the high court. He earned bachelor’s degree from the Punjab University in 1972 and LLB’s from the Gillani Law College, Multan, in 1976. Later, he obtained master’s degree in history from the Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan.

Mr Qureshi started his practice of law as an advocate in the lower judiciary in 1979. He was elevated to the advocate of the high court in 1982 and later as advocate of the Supreme Court in 1997.

During his practice as an advocate over 30 years, Mr Qureshi contested a large number of cases involving constitutional matters as well as criminal cases.

He took an active part in bar elections and was elected vice president (unopposed) of the High Court Bar Association, Multan Bench, in 1984. He had been a member of the Punjab Bar Council for two consecutive terms spanning 10 years (1999-2009). During his tenure as member of the Punjab Bar Council, he had been chairman of its disciplinary committee twice (2005-2007), chairman of finance committee (2001-2002) and chairman of human rights committee (2007-2008).

Mr Qureshi was appointed as a judge of the Lahore High Court in March, 2011, from where he retired on March 5, 2015, on attaining the age of superannuation.

Abdul Ghaffar Soomro, nominated ECP member from Sindh, is a retired officer of the secretariat group. He served as secretary of industries and production during the previous tenure of the PPP. He was later transferred as secretary of the sports division.

After his retirement in 2014, he joined Saudi-Pak Industrial and Agricultural Investment Company Ltd — a development finance institute that provides a wide range of financial products and services, including project finance and working capital loans.

Retired Justice Irshad Qaiser, nominated ECP member from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, was the second woman district and sessions judge in the history of the province. She was born in Peshawar on June 15, 1954. She was elevated to the high court on July 20, 2012, as an additional judge and was subsequently confirmed as a judge of the high court.

During her judicial career, she served on different important posts, including the judge of the accountability court for six years, district and sessions judge at different districts, special judge of customs and anti-smuggling and section officer in the law department.

With the retirement of Ms Qaiser this year, the number of judges in the high court came down to 15 against the sanctioned strength of 20. Four of 15 judges of the high court have been functioning on an additional basis.

Justice Shakeel Ahmed Baloch, nominated ECP member from Balochistan, was a serving judge of the Balochistan High Court until last week. He tendered his resignation last week citing personal reasons, which was accepted by President Mamnoon Hussain the very next day.

He was due to retire on July 31 after attaining the age of 62 years. He was born on August 1, 1954, in the Sinkhai area of Turbat. He attained LLB degree from the Sindh Muslim Law College, Karachi, and a master’s degree in international relations from the University of Karachi. He has another master’s degree in public relations and administration from the University of Oxford, the United Kingdom.

He was elected a member of the National Assembly from Makran in 1997. He restarted practice as a lawyer in 2000 and contested a number of cases in the high court, Supreme Court and the Federal Shariat Court.

Shakeel Baloch was appointed advocate general of Balochistan in June, 2013, and a judge of the Balochistan High Court on Sept 2, 2013.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2016