ISLAMABAD, Oct 6: The Election Commission may seek the Supreme Court’s approval to reintroduce the system of appointment of sessions judges as returning officers for conducting the coming general election.

An EC official told Dawn that Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim would most likely write a letter to Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry next week.

He said that during a consultative session held at the commission recently, representatives of several political parties called for the appointment of sessions judges, not other government employees, as returning officers.

A similar attempt was made when Justice (retd) Hamid Ali Mirza was chief election commissioner, but to no avail.

Aftab Ahmad Sherpao, chief of the People’s Party-S, and other leaders at the consultative session opposed the appointment of district coordination officers and other government employees as returning officers, observing that most of them would not be able to maintain impartiality during the elections because of political pressures.

Under the national judicial policy of 2009 it was decided that the judiciary would avoid its involvement in the conduct of elections because it distracts the judicial officers from professional duty.

The 2008 general elections were supervised by the sessions judges, but after the decision made under the national judicial policy in 2009, officers of the election commission worked as returning officers in by-elections.