— Boss says ECP yet to receive resignations of PTI MPs from National Assembly
ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which only in April sought from the Supreme Court a seven-month time to hold fresh general elections, Wednesday said it was “always ready for polls” and insisted it will “continue to make decisions without fear of intimidation”.
In an informal conversation with reporters after administering the oath of office to two new members of the agency from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab, Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja said the commission takes its “decisions fearlessly and it will continue to do so”.
If someone was displeased by, or disagreed with, its decisions, it’s their problem, he added, without elaborating further.
Since his appointment to the office in January 2020, Raja — who is the son-in-law of Saeed Mehdi, a retired civil servant and former principal secretary to disgraced former prime minister Nawaz Sharif — has been at the helm of a series of decisions against the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), the party claims.
In his first press conference after leaving office in April, former prime minister Imran Khan called for Raja’s resignation over charges of bias and said his party did not trust the chief election commissioner because all his decisions were against the PTI.
Raja, however, refused point-blank, saying he had no intention of stepping down and would continue to work in the “best interest of the country”, potentially compromising the neutrality of his fateful office.
Today, he again insisted that his department took decisions according to the law and Constitution of the land and that “everyone is our friend”.
Raja’s office had in April informed the Supreme Court the commission needed “at least six to seven months” to hold elections. Polls could be held “honestly, justly and fairly” in October, it had said.
But when asked today, he said the commission was “always ready for the elections” and it is the government that has to decide the date and schedule for the elections. “The ECP’s job is to hold transparent and fair elections,” he said, adding that work on the delimitation of constituencies is being carried out swiftly.
He added the final delimitation is not possible before the issuance of census results officially.
Speaking on the fate of PTI lawmakers who resigned en masse from the National Assembly, Raja said the deputy speaker was yet to forward their resignations to the agency.
Earlier, Raja administered the oath to two newly appointed members of the agency — Babar Hassan Bharwana from Punjab and retired Justice Ikramullah Khan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
