Justice Sardar Raza Khan is new Chief Election Commissioner

ISLAMABAD: Justice Sardar Raza Khan has been appointed as the permanent Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and a formal notification to this effect issued by the government, sources said Thursday.

President Mamnoon Hussain accorded approval to the above appointment on the advice of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, sources added.

Earlier, the parliamentary committee finalized the name of Justice Sardar Raza Khan as the new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), just a day before the December 5 deadline set by the Supreme Court.

Justice Sardar Raza Khan was serving as the Chief Justice of Federal Shariat Court. He retired as the judge of the Supreme Court in 2011. The respected judge had refused to take oath under the Provisional Constitution Order (PCO) after military dictator Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency in Nov 2007.

After the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee, Senator Rajwana told the media that Senator Islamuddin Sheikh proposed the name of Justice Raza and other members endorsed it. “This was a unanimous decision,” he added.

The government and opposition had finalized three names for the post of CEC on Wednesday and sent them to the parliamentary committee to finalise one name out of the three nominees.

Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in a meeting at the Parliament House had finalised three names — Justice Tariq Pervez (retd), Justice Sardar Raza Khan and Justice Tanveer Ahmed (retd) — and sent them to the parliamentary committee to select the CEC as per Article 213 (2A & 2B) of the Constitution.