President approves appointment of Sikandar Raja as CEC

• Nisar Durrani has been appointed as Election Commission member of Sindh while Shah Mehmood Jatoi as Election Commission member of Balochistan.
• The CEC post had been vacant since December 6.
• Raja recently retired as Pakistan Railways Secretary and had served on various key positions.

(Karachi) President of Pakistan Arif Alvi has approved appointment of Sikandar Sultan Raja as the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) for five years, media reported on Friday. The president also approved appointment of other Election Commission members, including Nisar Durrani and Shah Mehmood Jatoi.

Raja, who is an ex-bureaucrat, has been appointed to the top post after months of negotiations between the opposition parties and government. The parliamentary panel had already given approval to appoint Sikandar as the CEC.

Nisar Durrani has been appointed as Election Commission member for Sindh while Jatoi as Election Commission member for Balochistan.

The CEC post had been vacant since December 6.

Sikandar Sultan Raja has served as Assistant Commissioner Islamabad, Excise & Taxation Punjab Director-General, Provincial Secretary for Communication and Works and Director-General Immigration and Passports in the federal government.

Raja has also as Chief Secretary Gilgit-Baltistan and Chief Secretary Azad Kashmir. He recently retired as Pakistan Railways Secretary.

The appointments come in light of the November 2, 2019, order issued by the Islamabad High Court.

On August 22, President Alvi appointed Khalid Mehmood Siddiqui as ECP member for Sindh and Munir Ahmed Kakar for Balochistan against the positions vacated by Soomro and Baloch, from the two provinces.

However, both of them were denied the oath. In November, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) suspended the notification of their appointment on a petition from PML-N MNAs Murtaza Javed Abbasi and Dr Nisar Cheema.

On January 15, the IIHC had granted 10 more days to the government to finalise the ECP appointments.