A MONTH since the term of the last permanent chief election commissioner, Hamid Ali Mirza, expired, the nomination process for a new CEC has yet to get under way thanks to disagreements between the PPP and PML-N. This is an unhappy state of affairs given that a general election is due in the next year or so and important election-related decisions will have to be taken. Following the 18th Amendment the procedure to select a new CEC is as follows: in consultation with the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, the prime minister is to forward to a 12-member parliamentary committee three names for consideration as the next CEC. If the prime minister and leader of the opposition fail to develop a consensus on three names, they are entitled to submit three names each to the parliamentary committee which will then choose from one of six nominees. The problem is that there isn’t a constitutional deadline for developing a consensus after which the prime minister and leader of opposition are required to submit three names each. So the negotiations are continuing at their own pace and the country has to live with an acting CEC for now.

It goes to the credit of the acting CEC, Supreme Court Justice Shakirullah Jan, that he has not shirked from taking long-term decisions such as approving the testing of electronic voting machines in by-elections; however, the fact remains that a temporary occupant cannot be a substitute for a constitutionally protected CEC with a five-year term. And while it is also true that following the 18th Amendment the CEC is no longer the lynchpin of the Election Commission of Pakistan that he was pre-18th Amendment – the four other members of the ECP are now also selected by a parliamentary committee instead of being handpicked by the CEC – there are many administrative activities that are routed through the CEC’s office.

Technicalities aside, the problem here is that while the government and opposition are happy enough to talk of their support for a democratic and constitutional process, they are often lax in the fulfilment of their democratic and constitutional duties. The CEC’s office is a constitutionally sanctioned one. It needs to be occupied by a duly nominated person. Enough of dithering every step of the way.