Govt warns ECP of initiating contempt proceedings

• Federal minister Fawad Chaudhry says the Election Commission of Pakistan has lost the confidence of all political parties.
• He says ECP has failed to conduct the Senate elections in a free, fair and transparent manner.
• The PTI government has demanded the ECP members to step down.

ISLAMABAD: The PTI government on Tuesday announced to initiate contempt proceedings against the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) if it did not tender resignations.

Briefing the media after the Cabinet meeting, which met with Prime Minister Imran Khan in the chair, Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said consultations were held with the attorney-general.

“They are working on the case that if the ECP -- chief election commissioner (CEC) and four provincial members -- did not step down, the government could initiate the contempt of court proceedings against them and also use all available options on that count,"The News reported the minister as saying.

Read more: 'PM Imran Khan wants electronic voting system as soon as possible'

On Monday, the federal government had demanded the ECP to resign as it had "completely failed" to hold Senate elections in a transparent manner.

Fawad Chaudhry explained that they (ECP members) should themselves realise the situation and bow out; otherwise, the government had solutions (options) available to it and one of them was the contempt of court proceedings against them; and others could also be used.

“In the capacity of a political party, we demand you step down so that the Parliament could install a new election commissioner,” the minister told the electoral body.

Justifying the government demand, he said the incumbent commission had lost the confidence of all political parties after its failure to conduct the Senate elections in a free, fair and transparent manner and check corrupt practices.

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Referring to Article 218 (3), Fawad contended that the Election Commission’s prime responsibility was to ensure free, fair and transparent elections and stem chances of corrupt practices, which it failed to do and all political parties had consensus thereon.

Likewise, he continued that the ECP was given an advice by the Supreme Court of Pakistan to adhere to its responsibility as per the Constitution and make use of technology so that free and transparent elections of the Senate could be held, but it failed to implement the same.

Even before the elections, he pointed out, some videos went viral and then asked journalists were the Senate elections free, fair and transparent and there were no corrupt practices involved in the process.