ISLAMABAD: Finance Minis­ter Ishaq Dar and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah have agreed to “formally exchange” the proposed names for appointment of four members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) soon after Eid.

Talking to Dawn here on Monday, Mr Dar said he had spoken to Mr Shah, who is in his hometown of Sukkur to celebrate Eid, on the issue of appointment of the ECP members and both agreed to hold formal consultations any time after July 11.

In reply to a question, Mr Dar said they had so far not formally exchanged the names for the ECP members, though they had discussed a few names during their “informal discussion”.

The minister expressed the hope that they would complete the process within the timeline given in the Constitution.

An official handout later issued by the finance ministry said Mr Dar had informed the opposition leader about the possible names proposed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

The four ECP members retired on June 12 and the law requires appointment of their successors within 45 days of their retirement. July 27 is the constitutional deadline for the appointment of new members of the commission.

Earlier, Information Minister Pervaiz Rashid had claimed that the government had proposed the names for the vacant ECP posts and was now waiting for a response from the opposition leader.

But the opposition leader later denied receiving any list from the government and said that formal consultations on the issue were yet to start.

In a statement on Monday, Mr Shah said he would start consultations with other opposition parties after formally receiving the names from the government.

He said Mr Dar had informed him that the government would formally send the names after Eid. He also expressed the hope that the exercise would complete within the stipulated time.

It may be recalled that the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) has already postponed by-elections in five constituencies of the national and provincial assemblies in Punjab and Sindh, pending the appointment of new members to the currently non-functional Election Commission. These constituencies are: NA-63 (Jhelum), NA-162 (Sahiwal), PP-232 (Vehari), PP-240 (Dera Ghazi Khan) and PS-127 (Karachi).

Phases of local government elections in some parts of the country are also pending due to the same reason.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2016