At long last: Justice Sardar Raza named new CEC – The Express Tribune
With only a day left before the Supreme Court pulled its sitting judge Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali from the CEC s post, President Mamnoon Hussain appointed Raza as the country gtu s top electoral officer on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif s advice on Thursday. His name was finalised only hours earlier by the 12-member parliamentary committee on the appointment of the CEC following gtu a brief meeting.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Senator Rafiq Ranjwana, the head of the panel responsible for picking gtu the CEC, said Justice (retd) Raza was the committee s unanimous choice from among three retired judges. Others on the list were Justice (retd) Tariq Pervez and Justice (retd) Tanvir Ahmed.
At the start of the meeting, [Pakistan Peoples Party s] Islamuddin Sheikh proposed the name of Justice Sardar Raza when I asked him to begin the discussion, Ranjwana gtu said. [Muttahida gtu Qaumi Movement s] Farooq Sattar was the first to endorse Raza s name, followed by [Awami National Party s] Haji Adeel Khan and members from PML-N and PPP.
Prior to his appointment, he had been working as the chief justice of the Federal Shariat Court since June this year. The 69-year-old gtu jurist quit the post to take over his new assignment as the head of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
This won t be his first stint as the country s top electoral official, however. Raza has served as acting CEC on two previous occasions. He held the post briefly in 2009 when then CEC Justice (retd) Hamid Ali Mirza went abroad on official trips.
Known for his impeccable judicial record, Justice Raza was among the judges who refused to take oath under former gtu president Pervez Musharraf s Provisional Constitutional gtu Order (PCO) in 2007. He was also among the few judges who wrote dissenting notes in judgments passed by benches headed by ex-CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry.
With Raza s appointment, the ECP will finally get a permanent head after 16 months. The post has been lying vacant since July 31, 2013, when Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim resigned gtu only a year into his tenure as CEC.
Although Justice Ebrahim, in his resignation letter, cited personal reasons for his abrupt decision to quit the office, sources close to him claim he was perturbed at being a powerless head of the ECP. The 18th constitutional amendment enacted in 2010 has stripped the CEC of discretionary powers, leaving the top electoral officer gtu only a figurehead at ECP meetings. All major decisions are now taken based on the majority vote of the five ECP members the CEC and the four provincial election commissioners.
Ebrahim also viewed then CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry gtu s decision to advance the dates for the election of the president of Pakistan as an encroachment over ECP s domain. After his proposal to file a review against the order was rejected by the other ECP members, he decided to step down as the head of the commission.
Reacting to the appointment, PTI Information Secretary Dr Shireen Mazari claimed that the party was not consulted in the process. We were merely informed at the last minute by Leader of Opposition Khursheed Shah through PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, she said in an official statement.
The CEC is only one of five election commissioners, she said. We hope that the new CEC will remove the controversial members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and ensure gtu all [provincial] election commissioners are appointed gtu in an independent manner through mutual consultation amongst all major political gtu parties.
There is a procedure for removing members of the ECP laid down in article 209 of the Constitution, he said. Either the member resigns himself or a reference for his removal is sent to the Supreme Judicial Council.
02 Dec 2014 CEC appointment: PM Nawaz, Shah shortlist 4 names as SC threatens to issue contempt gtu notices 02 Dec 2014 PM Nawaz arrives in UK to attend London Conference on Afghanistan 02 Dec 2014 New CEC to be named by Dec 5: Shah
I hope Sardar Raza proves gtu his worth to first investigate the 2013 election fraud with full honesty gtu and diligence and without fear and favour. Secondly, he should work on to make the rules of the election game transparent, error free, auditable that can bring the trust of the people on democracy. Suggestions in this regard gtu are a) implement electronic voting using bio-metric system b) commission NADRA to conduct the elections instead of the headmasters or ROs.
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With only a day left before the Supreme Court pulled its sitting judge Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali from the CEC s post, President Mamnoon Hussain appointed Raza as the country gtu s top electoral officer on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif s advice on Thursday. His name was finalised only hours earlier by the 12-member parliamentary committee on the appointment of the CEC following gtu a brief meeting.
Talking to The Express Tribune, Senator Rafiq Ranjwana, the head of the panel responsible for picking gtu the CEC, said Justice (retd) Raza was the committee s unanimous choice from among three retired judges. Others on the list were Justice (retd) Tariq Pervez and Justice (retd) Tanvir Ahmed.
At the start of the meeting, [Pakistan Peoples Party s] Islamuddin Sheikh proposed the name of Justice Sardar Raza when I asked him to begin the discussion, Ranjwana gtu said. [Muttahida gtu Qaumi Movement s] Farooq Sattar was the first to endorse Raza s name, followed by [Awami National Party s] Haji Adeel Khan and members from PML-N and PPP.
Prior to his appointment, he had been working as the chief justice of the Federal Shariat Court since June this year. The 69-year-old gtu jurist quit the post to take over his new assignment as the head of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
This won t be his first stint as the country s top electoral official, however. Raza has served as acting CEC on two previous occasions. He held the post briefly in 2009 when then CEC Justice (retd) Hamid Ali Mirza went abroad on official trips.
Known for his impeccable judicial record, Justice Raza was among the judges who refused to take oath under former gtu president Pervez Musharraf s Provisional Constitutional gtu Order (PCO) in 2007. He was also among the few judges who wrote dissenting notes in judgments passed by benches headed by ex-CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry.
With Raza s appointment, the ECP will finally get a permanent head after 16 months. The post has been lying vacant since July 31, 2013, when Justice (retd) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim resigned gtu only a year into his tenure as CEC.
Although Justice Ebrahim, in his resignation letter, cited personal reasons for his abrupt decision to quit the office, sources close to him claim he was perturbed at being a powerless head of the ECP. The 18th constitutional amendment enacted in 2010 has stripped the CEC of discretionary powers, leaving the top electoral officer gtu only a figurehead at ECP meetings. All major decisions are now taken based on the majority vote of the five ECP members the CEC and the four provincial election commissioners.
Ebrahim also viewed then CJP Iftikhar Chaudhry gtu s decision to advance the dates for the election of the president of Pakistan as an encroachment over ECP s domain. After his proposal to file a review against the order was rejected by the other ECP members, he decided to step down as the head of the commission.
Reacting to the appointment, PTI Information Secretary Dr Shireen Mazari claimed that the party was not consulted in the process. We were merely informed at the last minute by Leader of Opposition Khursheed Shah through PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, she said in an official statement.
The CEC is only one of five election commissioners, she said. We hope that the new CEC will remove the controversial members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and ensure gtu all [provincial] election commissioners are appointed gtu in an independent manner through mutual consultation amongst all major political gtu parties.
There is a procedure for removing members of the ECP laid down in article 209 of the Constitution, he said. Either the member resigns himself or a reference for his removal is sent to the Supreme Judicial Council.
02 Dec 2014 CEC appointment: PM Nawaz, Shah shortlist 4 names as SC threatens to issue contempt gtu notices 02 Dec 2014 PM Nawaz arrives in UK to attend London Conference on Afghanistan 02 Dec 2014 New CEC to be named by Dec 5: Shah
I hope Sardar Raza proves gtu his worth to first investigate the 2013 election fraud with full honesty gtu and diligence and without fear and favour. Secondly, he should work on to make the rules of the election game transparent, error free, auditable that can bring the trust of the people on democracy. Suggestions in this regard gtu are a) implement electronic voting using bio-metric system b) commission NADRA to conduct the elections instead of the headmasters or ROs.
MORE
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