The Upper House by secret ballot.

Byline: M A Niazi

Does the action by the Election Commission of Pakistan on the NA 75 by-election, in which the poll was countermanded and fresh polling ordered for March 8, while district and tehsil officials were ordered suspended, with the Punjab Chief Sectary and IGP summoned, owe itself to the fact that the Chief Election Commissioner is a former civil servant rather than a retired judge, or to the recent strictures by the Supreme Court on the ECP in the shape of remarks from the bench during the hearings of the Senate elections reference, on whether or not the present secret ballot should be converted to a secret ballot?

Though the Constitution has always provided for the CEC to be a former civil servant, by tradition, the position has always gone to a retired Supreme Court judge. There is a certain logic in this, for the CEC does not only have to conduct elections, but has also got to decide election disputes. Those disputes are heard just as cases are, with appeals against decisions going to the regular court system. Also, like the courts, the ECP can command the government executive to execute its orders in connection with the conduct of an election.

However, the job has usually been entrusted to a retired judge. India long ago used the provision to allow a retired civil servant to hold the job. A civil servant is not only familiar with the administrative aspect of the job, but has spent a lifetime interpreting and applying rules and laws. As civil servants also hold magisterial positions, and used to serve as Returning Officers of various constituencies, they were suited to the task. India has an almost unbroken tradition of civil servants being appointed to the post. Not so in Pakistan, where former judges have long held the post.

Thus the appointment of Sikander Sultan Raja was something of an anomaly, as he was a bureaucrat who had been appointed in January 2020 for a three-year tenure. He had just retired as railways secretary. He is not expected to supervise a general election, though he is responsible for not only the local body elections that are to occur throughout the country, but also the updating of the electoral rolls that are to precede them. The ECP will also carry out the delimitations for the local councils. The delimitations of the National and Provincial Assemblies are also his responsibility, but will only be carried out after the next census, due only in 2028, though it may go beyond that going by past...