ECP Can Initiate Contempt Case If Funds Are Withheld: Dilshad

Fahad Shabbir (@FahadShabbir) Published December 01, 2021 | 01:08 PM

The former ECP Secretary says that ECP is a constitutional institutions and has powers under Article 222 to even reject any amendments to the Election Laws 2017 even if they are passed by a joint session of Parliament and all provincial assemblies, if they are against the provisions of the Constitution of Pakistan.

ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News-Dec 1^st, 2021) Former Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) secretary Kanwar Dilshad has said that Election Commission can launch a contempt case if any institution is authorized to withhold ECP’s funds.

He said that no institution has such authority to withhold ECP’s funds.

“The ECP is a constitutional institution and enjoys the same protocols and powers as the Supreme Court,” said Dilshad, adding that it would obtain the funds from the Ministry of Finance under Article 222of the Constitution.

He expressed these views while talking on local private channel.

Dilshad views appeared as defence to what Federal Minister Fawad Chaudhary had said on Tuesday that the ECP would get funds from the government to hold the next polls only if it holds the elections via EVMs.

Dilshad served as ECP federal secretary from July 2004 to December, 2009.

Currently, he is associated with a think tank working on awareness about electoral laws and is associated with the United Nations.

Dilshad was of the view that ECP under Article 222 of the Constitution of Pakistan (electoral laws) can reject any amendments to the Election Laws 2017 even if they are passed by a joint session of Parliament and all provincial assemblies, if they are against the provisions of the Constitution of Pakistan.

He said that it was beyond his understanding as to how the government would withhold the ECP’s funds, because the ECP had authority under the Constitution to make its own decisions.

On Tuesday, Fawad Chaudhary said that ECP was bound to hold all the next elections including by-polls through electronic voting machines (EVMs).

“The government will not be able to fund them if elections are not conducted through the EVMs,” said. Fawad Chaudhary.