ISLAMABAD, Feb 7: Dr Tahirul Qadri, the chief of Tehrik-i-Minhajul Quran, filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Thursday seeking immediate reconstitution of the Election Commission of Pakistan and appointment of a new chief election commissioner.

“The appointments of CEC Fakhruddin G. Ebrahim and four members of the ECP are not in accordance with the provisions of Articles 213 and 218 of the Constitution, hence all these appointments are void ab initio,” says the petition, which seems to have been drafted by Dr Qadri himself.

Dr Qadri, who intends to plead the case himself, prayed that pending a decision the court should restrain the ECP from working.

He also sought a directive for the federal government through the law ministry to appoint a new CEC and all four members of the ECP in accordance with Articles 213 (2a) and 218 (2a b) of the Constitution so that the elections may not be delayed on any pretext and conducted fairly, justly and in accordance with the law.

He explained that Article 213 (2a) required the prime minister and the leader of the opposition to forward three names for appointment of a commissioner to a parliamentary committee (PC) for hearing and confirmation of one person.

Similarly, Article 218 (2b) related to the appointment of four ECP members to be appointed by the president in a similar manner after proper hearing by the PC. But this was not done.

The PC had not conducted the hearing before confirmation of ECP members, Dr Qadri argued. Thus the CEC and members of the ECP have not been appointed in the manner laid down by the Constitution.

This conscious departure from procedure and requirement is quite meaningful and cannot be ignored, he pleaded, citing a verdict about the appointment of Justice (retd) Syed Deedar Hussain Shah as NAB chairman. The Supreme Court had invalidated his appointment because the leader of the opposition had not been consulted.

Dr Qadri acknowledged that security of term of office, as envisaged by Article 215 (2) prima facie, stands in the way as the CEC or any ECP member cannot be removed other than through a reference under Article 209 (Supreme Judicial Council).

But then he built up his case by stating that such security of term of office had been overridden and rendered nugatory on a number of occasions by the Supreme Court, recalling the example of Justice Sajjad Ali Shah, who was denied this protection and security of office on grounds of invalidity and unconstitutional appointment (1998 Malik Asad Ali case).

Verification of electoral rollsIn a separate case, Advocate Hamid Khan, representing PTI chief Imran Khan, accused the ECP of not implementing the Supreme Court’s directive to revise electoral rolls in Karachi by conducting a door-to-door verification in the presence of personnel of the armed forces or Frontier Corps (FC).

On Dec 5, 2012, the court had ordered the ECP to re-conduct the door-to-door verification of electoral lists in Karachi and asked the provincial election commissioner to submit an affidavit certifying whether the electoral rolls were being verified physically in the presence of the armed forces or FC.

The affidavit, which has to be submitted by Feb 13, must state how much area in Karachi has been covered and how many houses have been enrolled.