Islamabad: General Elections 2018 will be held under the supervision of judiciary and high courts have sent as many as 1000 names of judges of District Courts from all over the country to Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for their appointment as Returning Officers (ROs)and District Returning Officers (DRO) .
As per media reports, ECP authorities have confirmed notification in respect of Returning Officers (RO) and District Returning Officers(DRO) will be issued on 7th May.
Notification will be issued after the successful completion of process of delimitation of constituencies.
According to ECP, 129 names of 129 judges have been received for appointment as DROs and 849 judges for appointment as ROs have been received from all five High Courts.
It is to be mentioned that Judiciary had decided in 2009 under National Judicial Policy that judges will not be integrated in election process in order to avoid unnecessary controversies and allegations of rigging but judiciary while granting exemption on demands of political parties and the request of the then Chief Election Commissioner had allowed to appoint judges as RO’s and DRO’s only in general elections 2013.
What was being feared at the time of evolving the National Judicial Policy of 2009, things happened so and PTI and PPP charged DRO’s and RO’s with rigging in the polls in the favor of PLM-N
A campaign was launched by PTI against the rigging and CJP was also blamed for the mistakes.
Judicial Commission constituted to probe into rigging allegations said that there was no substance in the allegations and no role was played by CJP, .DRO’s, RO’s in the matter.
Despite it PTI and PPP kept on dubbing the election 2013 as ROs rigged election.
