Islamabad :
Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja has said that Election Commission of Pakistan is always ready for elections and will continue to make decisions without any fear.
Responding to allegations of bias against the election observer during an informal conversation with reporters after the swearing in of the two new members, he said, “The Election Commission makes its decisions fearlessly and will continue to do so.”
“Everyone is our friend and the ECP makes decisions in accordance with the law and the constitution. If anyone is unhappy or disagrees with these decisions, it is their problem,” the CEC said.
Talking to reporters, the Chief Election Commissioner was asked about the general elections, to which he replied that the ECP is always ready for elections and it is up to the government to decide on new elections.
He said that the task of ECP was to hold transparent and fair elections, work on delimitation was being expedited and final delimitation was not possible before the release of official census results.
He said that the ECP has a clear position on the census, the results of the 2017 census were released in May 2021 and then the zoning was started.
The CEC recalled that a constitutional amendment was introduced in 2018 regarding delimitation and elections. May be completed, if results are delayed then elections will be held on the basis of 2017 census.
Asked about the ECP’s lack of progress on the resignations of PTI MLAs, he said that former Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri had not sent the case to the Election Commission.
Responding to a question on the foreign funding case, he said that the case was being processed and it was important to give an opportunity to all parties to explain.
Earlier, the Chief Election Commissioner administered oath to two new members of ECP, Justice (retd) Ikramullah Khan from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Babar Hassan Bharwana from Punjab.
It should be noted that PTI accused Sikandar Sultan Raja and the Election Commission of bias while former Prime Minister Imran Khan has often demanded their resignation.
On May 11, the PTI announced plans to file a reference against the CEC, on which Fawad Chaudhry had said that the largest political party had lost confidence in him.
On April 16, a day after the Election Commission announced the daily hearing of the foreign funding case against PTI, PTI leader and former Minister for Human Rights Dr. Shirin Mazari accused the ECP of He termed the attitude as biased against PTI.
Three days later, Imran Khan claimed that the name of Skand Sultan Raja had been suggested by the Establishment for the post of Chief Election Commissioner.
The former prime minister had alleged that the name of Skand Sultan Raja was proposed by the Establishment after a deadlock between the then government and the opposition. He suggested that the Chief Election Commissioner should be appointed through an independent body.
Imran Khan had said that the PTI would file a reference against the Chief Election Commissioner, as the ECP had shown “incompetence” by not completing the delimitation of constituencies on time, which delayed the early elections.
At a rally in Lahore on April 21, the PTI chairman reiterated the allegations of Sikandar Raja’s bias and said that his inclination was so clear that he should be given a post in the PML-N.
He had demanded the resignation of Sikandar Sultan Raja at a press conference at his residence in Bani Gala on April 23, saying that the PTI did not trust the CEC as all its decisions were against the party.
On April 26, the PTI staged protests outside Election Commission offices across the country.
Meanwhile, Alexander Sultan Raja had made it clear that he was working in the best interests of the country and there was no reason for him to resign.
On the other hand, the PML-N and the PPP accused the PTI chairman of attacking state institutions for taking arbitrary decisions.