Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan appointed as Pakistan's new Chief Election Commissioner

ISLAMABAD: Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza Khan was today named Pakistan's new Chief Election Commissioner, a day before the expiry of a Supreme Court deadline to fill the key constitutional office lying vacant for over 16 months.

The announcement was made by Senator Rafiq Rajwana, chief of the parliamentary committee that appointed Justice Khan.

Rajwana said Islamuddin Shaikh of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) proposed the name of Justice Khan and it was supported by all party members during the meeting of the committee.

Members of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) did not attend the meeting.

PTI members have refrained from attending meetings of the parliamentary panel since party legislators resigned en masse at the peak of their protests in Islamabad in August.

Justice Khan, who belongs to Abbottabad in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is the Chief Justice of Federal Shariat Court and he retired as a judge of the Supreme Court in 2011.

He was among the Supreme Court judges who had refused to take oath under the Provisional Constitution Order after then military ruler Pervez Musharraf imposed emergency in 2007.

He was also a member of the bench which gave a decision in the famous National Reconciliation Ordinance case. Justice Khan was the only member who gave a "partial dissenting note," according to Dawn.

The appointment comes after the Supreme Court had set a December 5 deadline for the appointment of a permanent CEC.

The apex court had threatened on Tuesday it would consider issuance of notices against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah on December 8 if the two leaders failed to appoint a permanent CEC by the deadline.

The CEC office had been vacant for over 16 months after the retirement of Fakhruddin G Ibrahim.