What if Fakhru Bhai resigns, or the caretakers are forced out?

DUBAI: Although Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim has denied that he was resigning, at least not as yet, PPP insider and former law minister Dr Babar Awan has raised this prospect in all seriousness, quoting confidential information that he had received from his sources. Dr Awan has claimed that the resignation had been written and could be presented at any time if Fakhru Bhai got angry, tired or felt helpless.

This raises a serious question, which needs an urgent and credible constitutional and legal explanation. What will happen if the CEC resigns, or his aging health is unable to take the stress and strain of a highly demanding job, in 11,000 volts situation with hounds, wolves and crocodiles hovering all around him?

The immediate remedy in the Constitution is appointment of a judge as acting CEC by the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan but a permanent CEC would be needed to hold the elections any way.

At present when the government and the opposition is in place, the appointment of the CEC has to be done after consultations between these two sides. But once the parliament is dissolved, and a caretaker set up with no treasury or opposition present, who will appoint the CEC if he quits or is unable to perform his duties.

Likewise another key question is also being raised in some circles, after a direct threat by Dr Tahirul Qadri on Wednesday that he would also topple a caretaker government, which is put in place without the consultations and agreement of all stakeholders.

What he means is that if under any panic attack the present parliament is dissolved before its term expires on March 16 and the Government and Opposition put up their agreed person as caretaker PM, Dr Qadri will still continue with the Long March forcing even the caretaker PM to resign.

In that scenario who will appoint the next Caretaker and if a CEC is also not present, what does the Constitution suggest in such a scenario.

These two legal, but at the moment hypothetical questions, can become a real issue as both these possibilities have been mentioned in knowledgeable circles.

Fakhru Bhai is known to be a temperamental person who does not take any insult or undue criticism lightly. His role in the recent bye elections has been challenged and criticised by many losing political parties, including the PML-Q and he has also been put in place by Dr Tahirul Qadri who says the ECP has no constitutional mandate to bring any electoral reforms, as claimed by Fakhru Bhai.

On Wednesday Fakhru Bhai received another rebuke by the Defence Secretary at a top level meeting, the first serious gathering of all the key people who matter in holding the elections. Fakhru Bhai proposed that army jawans should be present in all polling stations but his proposal was instantly shot down and the Defence Secretary said army would be deployed only on sensitive polling stations. This would depress Fakhru Bhai’s enthusiasm to a dangerous level.

Likewise in another incident the ECP had to confront the NAB Chairman, Admiral Fasih Bokhari who took suo moto notice of the violation of the secrecy of the ballot paper in the no confidence vote against the Speaker of the Balochistan Assembly. NAB asked for a report from its Quetta chief and the ECP had to tell NAB that it was not its jurisdiction. But ECP itself did nothing.

The fate of a joint caretaker PM like Ishaq Dar of PML-N or Raza Rabbani of PPP, as being speculated by some sections of the media, has already been put in doubts by Dr Qadri who says no PM who is not a consensus candidate of all stakeholders will be accepted by him and the Long March or sit-in will continue.

With a paralysed Islamabad, the new CPM would find it hard to continue and may quit, or if forced to do so then what will happen and who will appoint a new caretaker chief executive?

In all these scenarios the role of the Supreme Court will attain absolute finality and the central position if the constitution is silent on any of these matters. Not even the president could dictate his choices unless the SC ratifies his decisions.

Legal experts are not clear and so is the Constitution. Veteran constitutionalist SM Zafar says the constitution is silent on the point as to who will play the role of Prime Minister and Leader of Opposition when National Assembly is not present.

“In my view, if CEC resigns in a situation when national assembly is not present, the Supreme Court would be asked to give advice as to what should be done as the constitution is silent,” Zafar said.

The SC may advise that the outgoing Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition may do so but in a situation when there is already a Long March against the choice of these two persons, this possibility is highly unlikely.

Apart from who will be the PM, another key issue that will, however, remain immensely relevant would be the agenda of the Caretakers? Will it be just the elections or would it include stopping the free fall of the economy, law and order and catching the thieves who may run after looting billions. This question will determine how long the caretakers will last.

Posted in: Top Story