ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will become fully functional after the newly-nominated chief election commissioner (CEC) and ECP members from Sindh and Balochistan took oath of office on Monday.

According to ECP spokesman Altaf Khan, Chief Justice of Pakistan Gulzar Ahmed will administer the oath to Sikandar Sultan Raja as CEC at a ceremony to be held at the Supreme Court building at 1pm.

Later, the chief election commissioner will administer oath to Nisar Durrani and Shah Mohammad Jatoi as ECP members from Sindh and Balochistan, respectively.

The bipartisan parliamentary committee headed by Human Rights Minister Dr Shireen Mazari had approved the three nominations through a consensus after almost a year-long controversy and legal interventions during a meeting held at the chamber of National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on January 21.

Son of an army officer, Mr Raja whose full name is Mohammad Jalal Sikandar Sultan, will be the first-ever former bureaucrat to be heading the country’s apex electoral body. He retired only a couple of months ago as railways secretary and enjoys a good reputation of being an honest and dedicated officer.

With induction of members from Sindh and Balochistan ECP will become fully functional

He had also served as petroleum secretary and chief secretary of both Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. He was director general (passports) when Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan was interior minister.

He served as provincial secretary of communications and works, services and general administration, besides local government secretary before being appointed additional chief secretary in Punjab for a brief period.

Mr Raja is the son-in-law of Saeed Mehdi, who served as principal secretary to the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif, and brother-in-law of Islamabad Chief Commissioner Amir Ahmad Ali, who is considered to be close to Prime Minister Imran Khan these days.

His wife Rabab is a serving grade-21 officer of Pakistan Customs.

The new ECP members are both senior lawyers.

Published in Dawn, January 26th, 2020