ISLAMABAD, Nov 29: Chief Justice-designate Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani has quit the office of acting chief election commissioner and will be replaced by Justice Nasirul Mulk, the senior most judge of the Supreme Court after him.

It will probably be for the first time in the history of the country that an acting chief election commissioner will be replaced by another acting CEC.

Informed sources told Dawn that Justice Jillani had written a letter to the outgoing Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry on Thursday, requesting him to relieve him of his duty as acting CEC.

An official of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) said the reason behind the move might be to avert the possibility of his decisions as acting CEC being challenged in the apex court after he took over as chief justice on Dec 12.

Justice Jillani was appointed acting CEC in August, days after retired Justice Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim resigned from the post of CEC in protest against the court’s decision to amend the presidential election schedule announced by the commission.

Justice Jillani served as acting CEC for over three months at a time when the court was criticising the provinces for dragging their feet on the issue of local government polls in violation of constitutional provisions.

Under the schedule announced even before the provinces completed the prerequisites, including delimitation, the LG polls in Punjab and Balochistan were to take place on Dec 7 and in Sindh on Nov 27. Efforts by Justice Jillani, however, bore fruit and the polls in the two provinces were allowed to be delayed.

Under the new plan, the LG elections in Sindh and Punjab were to take place on Jan 18 and Jan 30, 2014, respectively, and the schedule was to be formally announced on Nov 29. However, the ECP deferred the issuance of schedule for conduct of LG polls in the two provinces for an indefinite period.

Sources in the ECP said the reason was the failure of provincial governments to make available to the ECP the updated LG laws and rules and notification of delimitation exercise.

Justice Nasirul Mulk will be administered oath as acting CEC on Saturday.