ISLAMABAD: The parliamentary panel on the appo­int­ment of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) met here on Tuesday after a long interval, but failed to break the deadlock on filling three positions in the currently dysfunctional commission.

An informed source told Dawn that the bipartisan parliamentary panel will meet again on Dec 30. He said the members of the panel from the treasury side said that the next meeting will be the last one and the opposition told them they also wanted it to be the final meet.

Talking to reporters, a member of the committee from the PML-N, Mushahid­ullah Khan, said some progress has been made, but gave no details.

National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser had last week held a second round of talks with the government and opposition representatives, but there was no headway on the appointment of the CEC and two members of the ECP.

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

The very next day the Islamabad High Court (IHC) asked the lawmakers to rise above their political differences and make Constit­utional provisions workable.

In an order, the IHC reiterated that the dignity, authority and supremacy of parliament was of paramount importance and intervention by courts was neither desirable nor in consonance with the intent of the framers of the Constitution; the hearing was adjourned till Dec 31.

Published in Dawn, December 25th, 2019