Election commission needs capacity building: CJP.

ISLAMABAD -- The chief justice of Pakistan on Thursday regretted that a constitutional body like the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) apparently needs capacity building since it is inactive, inert and non-assertive.

The observation came when CJP Umar Ata Bandial recalled how the government had recently approved a supplementary grant of Rs20 billion for development schemes of parliamentarians and the amount was the same as required by the ECP to conduct elections to the Punjab Assembly.

'The grant for MNAs is a good thing but the allocation means that ECP itself is inactive,' he observed while pointing towards ECP counsel Sajeel Shaharyar Swati. The CJP was heading a three-judge Supreme Court bench hearing the ECP petition seeking to revisit the court's April 4 verdict of fixing May 14 as the date for Punjab Assembly polls.

However, Mr Swati argued that political temperature has gone even higher since the horrendous events of May 9, adding that as a result the ECP has to sit back to reassess the situation for holding the elections.

Wonders how long interim set-up can continue beyond 90 days

The CJP conceded that the May 9 incident was significant as it had badly affected the polity and something which needs to be addressed. But no indication [for holding polls] is in sight according to the belief of ECP, he observed, adding how much postponement or delay in the elections is tolerable.

The counsel apprised the...