The Islamabad High Court has given the government 10 days to appoint two new members to the Election Commission Pakistan (ECP).
Chief Justice Athar Minallah said the court wants to see Parliament as supreme and added that is strange to see Parliamentarians bringing Parliament issues to court. According to the secretary, the Senate chairman and National Assembly speaker are close to resolving the issue. However, PML-N MNA Mohsin Ranjha believes otherwise. He claims that Prime Minister Imran Khan has no interest sitting with opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif. Justice Minallah claims that the government holds more responsibility in the case, citing Nelson Mandela forgiving everyone after spending 24 years in jail. Two posts still exist in the ECP that still haven’t been filed. Those are the members for Sindh and Balochistan. Khalid Mehmood Siddiqui from Sindh and Munir Ahmed Khan from Balochistan were appointed on August 22nd of this year. The court has suspended the presidential notification appointing the two members. After the retirement of Abdul Ghaffar Soomro and Justice Shakeel Baloch, the posts had been vacant since January 26th. Although the law requires that the posts be filled in 45 days, President Arif Alvi appointed the two new members after seven months. Despite their appointment by the President, the electoral commission did not administer oaths to them on the grounds that their appointments were unconstitutional. Even the opposition criticised the moves from the President and since then, there has been a continued deadlock between the government and the opposition over the matter. Ranjha has argued that the appointments were a direct violation of the Constitution, adding that the notification issued on August 22 should be “blacklisted”. Keep up to date with more news at ProperGaanda: Pakistan Ranks 5th Country Most Vulnerable To Climate Change