Due to the LHC order, ECP stops training DROs and ROs

LAHORE: The district returning officers (DROs) and returning officers (ROs) appointed for the next general elections are no longer receiving training from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

In a notification released on Thursday, an ECP representative stated that the commission had ordered DRO and RO training to cease in accordance with the ruling of the Lahore High Court (LHC).The election commissioners of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Balochistan have received the notification. It informed that DRO and RO training was being conducted in Quetta, Karachi, Lahore, and Peshawar.

Prior to the general elections on February 8 of the following year, the ECP order requesting ROs from bureaucracy was suspended by the high court.

Justice Ali Baqir Najafi announced his reserved verdict on a petition filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), recommending that a larger bench be formed to hear the case. The case was referred to the chief justice of the LHC.

Before the one-judge LHC bench, petitioner Umair Niazi argued that the Election Commission had contacted the government to return officers and that it was unreasonable to expect fair and transparent elections from a caretaker administration. He asked the judge to set aside the ECP’s notification.

The ECP’s attorney asked the court to dismiss the petition as inadmissible during the hearing, arguing that although the commission wrote letters to the judiciary, it did not provide judicial officers. The attorney went on to say that holding free and transparent elections is the ECP’s job.

The order stated that while the relevant laws’ sections 50(1)(b) and 51(1) give the ECP the authority to choose returning officers from a list provided by the government and assistant returning officers from among its officers, officers of any government, and bodies under government control, the Election Commission of Pakistan is obligated by Article 218(3) of the Constitution to organize and conduct the elections and to make the arrangements necessary to ensure that the election is conducted honestly, justly, fairly, and in accordance with law, as well as to guard against corrupt practices..”

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As per the order, the Election Commission of Pakistan has been tasked with organizing and conducting the elections, ensuring that all necessary arrangements are made in advance and that the standards of justice, fairness, and honesty are followed.

“The Election Commission can take proactive measures to ensure that Article 218(3) of the Constitution is followed, which will increase the legitimacy of the nation’s election process. Executive authorities are required to support the chief election commissioner in planning and conducting elections since he is an independent constitutional authority free from any hint of subordination, according to the directive.

According to the order, “many independent groups have also seriously noted that, on the factual ground, the petitioner’s political party appears to be lacking in equal opportunities.” It would be very unclear whether his political party would continue to hold elections if the top political leadership was imprisoned or had fled.

As some district returning officers, returning officers, and assistant returning officers are appointed from the currently posted members of Administration throughout the country with whom the petitioner’s political party does not inspire any confidence, it appears that the petitioner’s fear that the Election Commission of Pakistan will not hold fair and free elections is well-founded.