ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has formed eight tribunals to decide disputes arising out of the local government elections and subsequent by-elections in Punjab.

According to an ECP notification, retired district and sessions judges have been contractually-employed in grade 22 until Feb 29 to head these tribunals.

The appointments will be liable to termination on 30 days notice on either side, or payment of basic pay in lieu, without assigning any reason. “Pay perks and privileges will be admissible in accordance with accepted terms and conditions as mentioned in the offer of appointment,” the notification reads.

The tribunals formed by the ECP in the past seldom disposed of election petitions in time and violated the law by granting adjournments beyond the time specified in the law with impunity. The termination clause mentioned in the notification clearly indicates that the tribunals will only be allowed to proceed in accordance with the provisions of the law, and not their whims.

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Retired District and Sessions judge Mian Mohammad Shafi has been appointed to the election tribunal in Sargodha, Sarwar Saleemullah has been appointed to the Lahore election tribunal and Syed Hamid Hussain in Sahiwal.

Abdul Rehman Khan, Muhammad Khalid Shabbir and Abdul Hafeez have been appointed to the tribunals for Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Bahawalpur, respectively. Malik Muhammad Akram Awan is the tribunal judge in Rawalpindi and Nazir Ahmad Aqeel is the judge in Multan.

An ECP official said the contract period will start from the date these officers assume charge of their posts. Conceding that a term less than three months was too short to obtain decisions on all petitions relating to the gigantic electoral exercise of the LG polls. However, he said the number of tribunals may be increased if there was a need to do so.

Slow-paced tribunals will not receive any extension and will be replaced by efficient officers, he said, adding that an extension in the term of tribunals was only possible on reasonable grounds.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2015