Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry. — File photo

ISLAMABAD: The resignation letter of former secretary of the Election Commission drew the ire on Tuesday of the Supreme Court which described it as an attempt to malign the court.

In his resignation submitted to the chief election commissioner, Ishtiak Ahmad Khan had accused ‘unnamed’ institutions of meddling in the affairs of ECP. Copies of the resignation letter have also been sent to members of the commission, establishment secretary and principal secretary to the prime minister.

Although he did not name the institutions encroaching upon the autonomy of the ECP, he made an indirect reference to the commission’s recent face-off with the Supreme Court. He also explained why he chose to resign at this crucial juncture when the ECP was carrying out the gigantic task of updating electoral lists.

“Without naming you have called names,” observed Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry while pointing to the former secretary who also appeared before a two-judge bench hearing petitions of PTI chief Imran Khan and former premier Benazir Bhutto alleging irregularities in the voters’ list.

But Mr Khan said he had not named any institution.

“You have tried to undermine the authority of the Supreme Court,” the chief justice observed.

“It seems that instead of explaining why he failed to fulfil his duty on behalf of the commission, he addressed a letter to the prime minister,” the court said and ordered that an authentic copy of the letter be placed before it on March 14 so that the court could examine it and proceed individually.

The visibly disturbed bench also rejected the ECP’s explanation for not meeting the Feb 23 deadline for completing the electoral list. “The court has no interest whatsoever except to ensure unpolluted voters’ list,” the chief justice observed.

“We may point out that the commission, being a constitutional body, is bound to follow the Constitution and the law and no departure from its mandatory provisions can be allowed for any reason which is not acceptable to the law and the Constitution,” the court said in its order.

Attorney General Maulvi Anwarul Haq read out a reply filed by the CEC but signed by the secretary. It sought the court’s approval for a fresh plan of completing the task by March. The commission said whatever step it took was in good faith and never intended to disobey the court’s direction in any manner.

The court expressed surprise when it was informed that members of the commission, who were high court judges, were neither aware of the deadline set by the court on July 4 last year nor a contract between the ECP and Nadra. They came to know about it on Dec 20 last year, although a file regarding approval on two counts -- allowing the ECP secretary to sign the contract with Nadra and releasing 20 per cent mobilisation advance to Nadra -- had been placed before them on July 4, 2011.

In their reply, the ECP members said they were not in a position to advise the commission about the extension needed to revise the electoral rolls and suggested filing of an application in the court for the extension since oral request by the secretary for the purpose had already been turned down.

But the secretary in his reply, purportedly filed on his own behalf and on behalf of the CEC, said the deadline had been extended on the basis of resolutions adopted by the Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa assemblies as well as in view of a report by the Sindh election commissioner which had stated that the verification process could not be started in some flood-affected districts. In addition, verification in 3,923 blocks in different parts of Karachi could also not be started because of the law and order situation.

The process of preparing fresh electoral lists or revision, the court noted, should have commenced in 2007 when a constitution petition had been filed by Benazir Bhutto. “Prime facie it seems that despite making commitments on various dates, particularly, on July 4, 2011, the process of completing electoral lists has not so far been completed by the commission and even if for the sake of argument that there were requests by the legislative bodies and the commission had extended the time then there was no difficulty to complete the task by or before Feb 23,” the order said.

The hearing was adjourned when the attorney general sought time to collect relevant documents from 2007 till now in respect of different stages during which steps were taken to complete the electoral lists.

Referring to the possibility of extending voting rights to Pakistanis living abroad, the court decided to wait till a final decision is taken by the government.

The court realised that the government had decided in principle to provide the facility to expatriates to exercise their right to vote, but modalities to implement the decision had to be worked out.

About eight million Pakistanis live in different countries.