ECP approves draft of electoral reforms bill

ALI HUSSAIN

ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Wednesday approved draft of the electoral reforms bill, besides agreeing to hold meeting on Thursday (today) with the government team which brokered a deal with Dr Tahirul Qadri for similar reforms.

A meeting, held here at the ECP under Chief Election Commissioner former Justice Fakhruddin G Ebrahim, was also attended by other members of the commission.

Under the bill, the fee to file nomination paper for contesting National Assembly seat has been increased to Rs50,000. Similarly, candidates contesting for provincial assembly seats will have to pay a fee of Rs25,000 along with nomination papers.

According to the draft bill, Rs100,000 fine will be imposed on voters casting bogus votes. Those committing election forgery will have to pay fine of Rs100,000 and face up to five years of imprisonment. According to the draft, a fine Rs100,000 will also be imposed for illegally occupying polling stations and exceeding the amount allowed for election expenses.

The Director-General of ECP, Afzal Khan, brieed reporters about the meeting and said that the commission overruled the government’s objection on the imposition of ban on new recruitment, saying that it had been imposed under Article 218 of the Constitution.

He said that the ECP also registered 11 new political parties, bringing the total number of political forces in the country to 227. Election symbols to 16 political parties were also granted. The symbol of ‘missile’ was allotted to Tehreek-e-Tahafuzz Pakistan (TTP), a political party registered with the ECP by nuclear scientist Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan.

According to him, the meeting decided that voters’ verification process in Karachi would be completed by March 10 this year.

Meanwhile, ECP sources said that the CEC also fixed today (Thursday) to hold meeting with the government team, which brokered a deal with Tehrik Minhajul Quran chief Dr Qadri to wind up his four-day sit-in in front of the parliament house.

According to the sources, the government team will discuss with the CEC the demands of Dr Qadri, including the dissolution of the ECP. However, talking to media persons after consulting legal experts, Law Minister Farooq H Naek said that the commission could not be dissolved through any administrative action and similarly its members could not be removed.

He said that the legal experts including S M Zafar, Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, Farukh Naseem, Latif Afridi and Dr Khalid Ranjha, had unanimously stated that the CEC could not be removed.

Constitutional experts have already termed the demand of dissolution of ECP unrealistic.

According to them, Article 215 of the Constitution refers to removal of the Chief Election Commissioner and any member of the ECP, which says “the commissioner [or member] shall not be removed from office except in the manner prescribed in Article 209 for the removal from office of a judge and in the application of the article for the purposes of this clause any reference in that article to a judge shall be construed as a reference to the commissioner [or, as the case may be, a member].

In this case, the CEC and any member of the ECP could only be removed through Supreme Judicial Council, the procedure for which is defined in Article 209 of the Constitution.

The government team is also due to meet Dr Tahirul Qadri on Sunday to discuss the issue of dissolution of the ECP.