Sikandar Sultan Raja, the top election commissioner, appears to have little regard for the Constitution.
It is obvious that the constitutional deadline for general elections will not be adhered to either, in part due to the PDM government’s ‘timely’ approval of census results and the justification of new constituency delimitation it has provided. He already has the illegal and unjustifiable delay of the long overdue elections to the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab assemblies to his credit
If there had been a stronger sense of responsibility to the people and their rights on show, one may have been able to look at these departures from constitutional timetables with a little more compassion.
The invitation was politely declined the next day by Mr. Raja, who deemed the president’s gesture to be of “scant consequence” in light of recent revisions to the election law. Article 48(5) of the Constitution grants the president the right to call general elections for the National Assembly within 90 days of that body’s dissolution.
The invitation was politely declined the next day by Mr. Raja, who deemed the president’s gesture to be of “scant consequence” in light of recent revisions to the election law.
Was it really necessary to be so aggressive? As a matter of common decency, he may have personally introduced himself to the head of state. Mr. Raja reportedly thought it would be more beneficial to speak with the US ambassador on Pakistan’s elections.
The most important thing to note is that the most recent revisions to the Elections Act, which Mr. Raja highlighted in his letter as justification to decline the
Was it really necessary to be so aggressive? As a matter of common decency, he may have personally introduced himself to the head of state. Mr. Raja reportedly thought it would be more beneficial to speak with the US ambassador on Pakistan’s elections
The recent amendments to the Elections Act, which Mr. Raja used in his letter as rationale for declining the president’s invitation, can and will be challenged, it must be made clear.
Several legal experts have noted that the commissioner “understands and believes” the law’s change to Section 57. Some legal experts have noted that the Constitution, which expressly grants this authority to the president of Pakistan, remains subject to and subservient to the amendment to Section 57 of the law, which the commissioner “understands and believes” gives the ECP the sole authority to set a date for general elections.
Should the commissioner not have shown more caution in light of this obvious contradiction? One could think back to the ECP’s censure by the Supreme Court in the Punjab elections delay case.
The country’s top court chastised the election watchdog in its thorough ruling on the subject for acting improperly by postponing elections above the constitutionally mandated 90-day mark by mixing its duties with “non-existent” powers.
