Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja said on Wednesday that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will continue to work in an impartial manner and would not compromise on its ruling even if they ruffle some feathers.
“If someone is not happy with ECP over its decision then it is their choice,” said the CEC in an informal conversation with journalists in Islamabad. He added that the ECP always acted in accordance with the Constitution and the relevant laws.
The comments of the ECP chief came as a thinly-veiled reference to the criticism levelled by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and party chairman former prime minister Imran Khan, who have accused Raja of being biased towards the PTI, especially in the foreign funding case.
Raja, appointed during the PTI government, has been accused by the PTI of being a “mouthpiece” of the opposition.
Raja said the ECP was always ready to conduct elections and added the decision to announce new polls was the government’s domain. “Our job is to ensure transparent polls,” he added.
Read Tareen group to move SC against ECP verdict
According to the ECP chief, the delimitation exercise was underway at a quick pace. He added that the ECP’s stance regarding census results was clear that delimitation exercise could not be carried out before the official announcement of the census result. He added that the results of the 2017 census were published in March 2021 after which the work on delimitation kicked off.
The ECP head said in 2018, a constitutional amendment was passed regarding elections and delimitations. He added the government wanted to conduct a digital population census and added that the election watchdog could complete the delimitation process in time if the results of the census were available by December this year.
He said if the result were not made available by the end of this year then the election will be held on the basis of delimitation conducted as per the 2017 census.
Raja said the foreign funding case against the PTI was underway. He agreed that all parties needed a fair chance to defend themselves. However, he added that the journalists could judge better the events that transpired during the foreign funding case over the eight years.
About the mass resignations of the PTI, he said the National Assembly speaker has not forwarded these resignations to the ECP yet.