Noncontroversial CEC will be nothing short of a miracle

ISLAMABAD: Hardly any chief election commissioner (CEC) has been noncontroversial because of the manipulation of electoral system by influential players to their advantage to rout their arch rivals.

There are not too many instances showing that the successive CECs actually connived with different actors to tilt the poll results in anybody’s favour, but they have either been helpless or spineless to prevent the contriving and manoeuvering of the system by others. Although, they are armed with sufficient powers, they have been too docile and timorous to exercise them to thwart the meddling. There is little or no problem in the poll law after the Election Act, 2017, was passed by the Parliament with consensus during the previous government. Marathon consultations were held with a large number of stakeholders for its preparation. All the poll laws were also amalgamated to have just one statue to end the confusion and trash the laws made by the dictator.

But still the fiasco that befell in the shape of the failure of the result transmission system (RTS) in 2018 made the entire electoral process disputed and doubtful, leaving aside what happened in the pre-election period.

The chaotic situation created by the collapse of the RTS was blamed on the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) under CEC Justice (R) Sardar Raza Khan, who retired on Friday after exhaustion of his constitutional tenure. He largely performed well, but the intense political controversy generated by the 2018 general elections will continue to haunt him. Losing political parties persist with the mantra that the polls were grossly engineered to defeat them and the RTS was deliberately made nonoperational.

Sardar Raza had been appointed as a result of consultations between the then Prime Minister, Nawaz Sharif, and leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, Syed Khurshid Shah. Both became sceptical about his role because of the last parliamentary polls.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) kept changing its policy towards Sardar Raza. At times, it lauded him profusely. But it also showered severe criticism on him. In the last few months of his incumbency, it was extremely critical of him on account of the five-year old foreign funding case filed by the PTI dissident Akbar S Babar. A time became when the PTI eagerly waited for his retirement.

Before him, when Justice (R) Fakharuddin G Ibrahim, widely acclaimed noble fellow, was appointed the CEC five years, he earned universal kudos. Even the PTI rated him very high. However, it put so much pressure on him by publicly campaigning against him that he has to finally call it quits. In this sense, he too became controversial.

Among other CECs, Justice (R) Irshad Hassan Khan never earned any laurels and was always denounced for his role in this post. A famous quote that was frequently referred at the time was that he while heading a Supreme Court bench had given three years to Gen Pervez Musharraf to even amend the Constitution (which was even asked for), and the dictator in exchange blessed him with the top office for three years. The general elections and public referendum were highly rigged. Even Musharraf once frankly admitted gross fraud in the referendum.

Justice S A Nusrat, who held the office of the CEC during General Ziaul Haq’s martial law, was never known for holding local or general elections in a fair, free and transparent manner. The ECP under him did what the rulers dictated.

Justice Molvi Mushtaq Hussain’s term as CEC was also never found noncontroversial mainly because of the judgement he, while heading a Lahore High Court (LHC) bench, had handed awarding death sentence to Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto.

In the early years of the ECP, four bureaucrats FM Khan, Akhar Hussain, G Moinuddin Khan and NA Farooqi had served as the CECs. During Ayub Khan’s era, the presidential election and basic democracies’ (BD) system were massively engineered to please the military dictator. The ECP turned out to be his handmaiden and puppet.

After several years, the experiment to have a retired bureaucrat as the CEC is about to be repeated if there is no change in the lists of candidates recommended by Prime Minister Imran Khan and leader of the opposition Shahbaz Sharif.

As a general rule, it has been proven that civil servants mostly love the status quo and hardly pick up the courage to take bold decisions that are disapproved by the rulers. They always look to the powerful while doing their job.

However, the problem with the political parties is that they all the time search for fawning flunkies instead of independent minded people, who do justice and work with honesty. This is the fundamental reason that there is always a fierce fight between the constitutional consultees about the appointment of the next CEC and ECP members with every side desperate to have his nominees in place.

It will not be less than a miracle even now if the two sides would be able to have a consensus CEC, who turns out to be uncontroversial.

In the past, the CEC used to be powerful, but after the enactment of the Elections Act, 2017, he doesn’t have any exceptional powers and is just one among the equals. Now, it is the ECP meaning the CEC and four members that take all decisions. Every one of them has equal say and one vote.

The CEC’s powers akin to those of the chief justices of the Supreme Court or a high court, who, while being part of benches, have equal weight like that of their other members. It has happened that the members of a judges’ panel have delivered a judgement different from that of the chief justice.