Tag: judicial

  • ‘Officers from diverse departments’ may serve as DROs, ROs: ECP

    ‘Officers from diverse departments’ may serve as DROs, ROs: ECP

    The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) is considering the appointment of “officers from diverse departments,” including judiciary, federal, and provincial governments, and officers from ECP as district returning officers (DROs) and returning officers (ROs) in the upcoming election on February 8, The News has reported on Thursday.

    According to the report, it is highly likely that ECP will use a mix of officers, but no official decision has been taken in this matter.

    “The Election Commission is left with no option but to engage officers from diverse departments. Already, the provincial election commissioners are in the process of finalising lists of officers for the poll job, besides Central Secretariat,” a senior official of the ECP told The News.

    The source from ECP also said that judiciary had rejected the request to appoint officers for election duty because of multiple reasons, including several pending cases. However, one of the smaller provincial high courts expressed a willingness to provide officers for election duty.

    To a question, he said around 1,000 DROs and ROs would be involved in the nationwide election duty.

    In 2009, the National Judicial Policy Making Committee (NJPMC) decided not to appoint judicial officers for election duty, as this had dragged the “judiciary into political controversies”.

  • ‘Jhoot bola hai’: Punjab Governor says PTI did not ask him to step down

    ‘Jhoot bola hai’: Punjab Governor says PTI did not ask him to step down

    Punjab Governor Chaudhry Muhammad Sarwar refuted reports that he was told by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to step down from the Governor Punjab post, terming it a “lie”.

    Sarwar, speaking to journalists in London, said, “The impression of being sidelined [by the party] is also not correct.”

    Earlier this week, Sarwar made many heads turn when he spoke against his party.

    “I never asked for the governor’s position but had been asked by the party’s leadership to accept it,” he said.

    “When you are in a party, you have to accept the party’s decision and you cannot rebel. This was our party’s unanimous decision,” Sarwar added.

    When asked by a reporter whether this was done to sideline him, the Punjab governor agreed, saying that he came to that realisation later.

    Sarwar said he could have delivered much more for the country if he was given another role, adding that he was doing his best to fulfill his duty in areas where he could exercise his domain.

    The Punjab Governor said, “so far we have failed to bring judicial and police reforms”.