ISLAMABAD - The Parliamentary Committee on Appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner on Monday unanimously approved Justice (r) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim for appointment as the CEC. The committee, which met at the Parliament House with Syed Khursheed Ahmad Shah in the chair, considered the nominations forwarded by the prime minister and leader of opposition in the National Assembly and unanimously confirmed the name of Justice (r) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim. Justice (r) Fakhruddin has said he would accept the responsibility if given the opportunity. Talking to a private TV channel, Ebrahim said he had not yet been informed of his selection by the committee, but would accept the responsibility if it was handed over to him.
Under the 18th Amendment, the tenure of the CEC has been increased to five years from three and the procedure for the appointment has been changed. The CEC was earlier appointed by the president, but under Article 213, the prime minister in consultation with the opposition leader in the National Assembly is required to forward three names to the parliamentary committee for confirmation of one of them. After the parliamentary committee meeting earlier, Khursheed Shah said “any fears regarding rigging in elections” should no longer hold merit, adding that ninety percent of the work pertaining to implementation of the Charter of Democracy (CoD) had been completed. Ebrahim’s name had been proposed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in May. The PML-N had proposed the names of Justice Shakirullah Jan, Justice (r) Fakharuddin G Ebrahim and Justice (r) Nasir Aslam Zahid for the post. The government had proposed the names of Justice (r) Munir A Sheikh, Justice (r) Amirul Mulk Mengal and Justice (r) Zahid Qurban Alvi. Justice (r) Fakhruddin G Ebrahim is an eminent Pakistani jurist, constitutional expert, senior advocate Supreme Court, former federal law minister, former attorney general of Pakistan, former judge of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and former governor of Sindh. He was born on February 12, 1928 in Ahmedabad, Gujarat. Ebrahim attended the Gujrat Vidyapith and received an undergraduate degree in law in 1949. He also studied courses based on philosophy and attended lectures given by Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. In the year 1950, Ebrahim migrated to Pakistan and attended Sindh Muslim College. He received LLM degree and an honorary Juris Doctor in 1960 and later established his own law firm by the name of Fakhruddin G Ebrahim & Company. In March 1981, he was amongst the very few judges who refused to take oath under Provincial Constitutional Order (PCO) drafted by General Ziaul Haq. The establishment of the Citizen Police Liaison Committee in 1989 remains one of Ebrahim’s prolific achievements.