ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on Monday held a second round of talks with the government and opposition representatives, but there was no headway on the appointment of chief election commissioner (CEC) and two members of the Election Commission of Pakistan.

Now it is expected that more time would be sought from the Islamabad High Court on Tuesday as it had adjourned until Dec 17 the hearing on identical petitions against controversial appointment of two ECP members.

The ECP became non-functional after the retirement of CEC Sardar Mohammad Raza on Dec 5.

Sources told Dawn that the government side insisted that ECP Secretary Babar Yaqoob Fateh Mohammad should be appointed as CEC, while the opposition continued to oppose the proposal.

The sources said that the opposition wanted the government to choose one from the two others on its list of nominees for the position.

With an expectation that the two ECP members would be appointed in 10 days, the IHC had adjourned till Dec 17 the hearing on the petitions against their controversial appointment by President Dr Arif Alvi.

On Aug 22, the president appointed Khalid Mehmood Siddiqui as ECP member for Sindh and Munir Ahmed Kakar for Balochistan against the positions vacated by Abdul Ghaffar Soomro and retired Justice Shakeel Baloch, from the two provinces.

But the CEC refused to administer the oath of office to both of them while terming their appointment unconstitutional.

In a written statement, the ECP said the president had made the appointments “in violation of clauses 2A and 2B of Article 213 of the Constitution”.

On Nov 4, the IHC suspended the appointments and referred the matter to parliament.

On Thursday, National Assembly’s secretary Tahir Hussain appeared before IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah and described in detail the efforts made by the National Assembly speaker and the Senate chairman regarding the process for appointment of the CEC and ECP members.

He requested the court to grant some additional time so that the issue could be resolved amicably as members from both the treasury and opposition benches were responding positively to the efforts made in this regard by the NA speaker and the Senate chairman.

The parliamentary committee on appointment of CEC and ECP members could not meet for quite some time and its meetings were postponed four times at the last minute.

Published in Dawn, December 17th, 2019