After months of death air and no movement on the most important election agreements, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Wednesday extended an olive branch to the National Assembly’s opposition leader Omar Ayub and invited him to consult a new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC). In a letter, the Prime Minister declared that CEC’s period as well as for two other members of the ECP ended on January 26. However, all three have continued their duties in accordance with Article 215 of the Constitution. He said that, according to Article 218, proposals must be submitted to CEC and its members to the Parliamentary Committee. The letter comes when the constitutional Logjam has been propagating since January when the five-year terms of CEC Sikandar Sultan Raja, Sindh member Nisar Durrani and Balochistan member Shah Muhammad Jatoi ended on January 26. The process, clearly constructed in Article 213, requires a consensus between the Prime Minister and the opposition leader. In the event of no deal, both sides must send separate lists of three names to a 12-member Bipartisan committee, who would then select one and send it to the president for formal appointment. However, the process has been to collect dust. Although the seats in CEC and two members expired in January, the government allowed the 45-day constitutional time for new appointments that lapsed on March 12, to come and go without a solution. The expectation now rests at the feet of both the Treasury and the opposition, where none of the pages make serious contact until the Prime Minister’s letter. On the other hand, Pakistan Tehreek-E-Insaf (PTI) has already taken the government to court in March. A petition submitted in Islamabad High Court by Ayub and Senate’s opposition leader Shibli Faraz Lambaster passivity as a constitutional violation. It names the federal government, the chairman of the Senate, the National Assembly’s Speeches and the ECP as respondents. The petition calls on the court to force the National Assembly’s speeches to constitute the required parliamentary committee and calls on the chairman of the Senate to give names of senators to the same. It also asks the right to order the Prime Minister to have meaningful consultations with Ayub, as required in Article 213, and to declare CEC’s continued presence and two expired members as illegal. Constitutional experts point to the 26th amendment that amended Article 215 (2). 4, to allow office holders to continue "Until successors are appointed". Both opposition and observers claim that the amendment is a legislative patch on executive indecision, especially when the most important positions intended to guarantee fair choices remain in Limbo. Of the four members of the ECP, only Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa representatives – Babar Hassan Bharwana and Justice (RETD) Ikramullah Khan – still have valid hires, both extending until mid -2027. It is worth noting that Cec Sikandar Sultan Raja’s term of office has been full of political minefields. Opposition parties, especially PTI, have accused him of everything from management elections to opening partiship. He has been criticized for failing to secure timely parliamentary elections and for removing PTI for its iconic ‘BAT’ symbol prior to the polls in 2024. Parliamentary integrity.
PM writing to OPP to transfer new CEC
