• CEC says printing, delivery of final electoral rolls completed
• Judiciary refuses to spare officers for poll duty
• DROs, ROs to be selected soon from among district administration officials

ISLAMABAD: With the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) all set to unveil schedule for the Feb 8 polls next week, Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja on Thursday said printing and delivery of final electoral rolls had successfully been completed.

Talking to Dawn, a senior official said the schedule would most probably be announced on Dec 14. At the same time, he added, district returning officers (DROs), returning officers (ROs), and assistant returning officers (AROs) would also be appointed.

High courts of all the four provinces had declined to spare judicial officers for appointment as DROs and ROs, and now officers would be drawn from the district administration to perform these duties, said the ECP official, requesting anonymity.

CEC’s message

In a message on the occasion of National Voters Day, CEC Raja said printing and delivery of final electoral rolls had successfully been completed, adding that his department was fully cognisant of its constitutional and legal responsibilities.

Emphasising its full preparedness and commitment, he said the ECP assures the voters of complete security throughout the election process. He said exercise of people’s voting rights with privacy and transparency would be ensured in the upcoming elections.

He said ECP was preparing to announce the election schedule and appoint the DROs, ROs and AROs.

The CEC urged the public to participate in shaping the nation’s bright future by exercising their right to vote. En­­couraging voters to actively participate in the electoral exercise, he stressed the importance of prioritising their children’s future and advised against believing in unfounded news and rumours concerning the elections.

He pointed out that becoming part of the electoral process was a right as well as a national duty. The Election Commission, he said, was busy preparing for the elections slated to be held on Feb 8.

He assured the conduct of a peaceful election and sought people’s cooperation in this regard.

The National Voters Day is observed on Dec 7 to create awareness among the masses about the importance of vote registration and encourage the electorate to use the power of ballot to elect the representatives of their choice.

The first general elections in the country were held on Dec 7, 1970.

The National Judicial Policy Making Committee (NJPMC) in its policy issued in 2009 had decided to stop judicial officers from performing election duties as this had dragged the judiciary into political controversies.

A request to get assistance of judicial officers for the 2013 general elections had been dismissed by the NJPMC during the stint of retired Justice Hamid Ali Mirza as the CEC, but a similar attempt made by his successor, the late Justice (retired) Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim, in 2012 had succeeded and the NJPMC had agreed to a one-time lifting of bar on judiciary’s involvement in elections.

The committee, headed by the then chief justice of Pakistan Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, had decided to provide services of an adequate number of judicial officers to the ECP for their appointment as DROs and ROs.

The waiver was opposed by civil society, saying the ECP must retain its authority for managing the election operations independently as the ECP’s sharing of its constitutionally defined responsibilities with judiciary had created a conflict of interest for judiciary and undermined the credibility of both the ECP and the judiciary.

The judiciary had also agreed to provide officers from lower courts to act as DROs and ROs in the 2018 general elections on a request made by then-CEC retired Sardar Muhammad Raza to then-CJP Saqib Nisar.

Under sections 50 and 51 of the Elections Act, a DRO is appointed for a district or a specified area and an RO for a constituency.

These can either be drawn by the ECP from among its own offi­cers, by selection from a list of officers provided by the government or a provincial government; or from the subordinate judiciary.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2023