ISLAMABAD – Justice (retired) Altaf Ibrahim Qureshi took oath on Friday as the acting chief election commissioner of Pakistan.
Election Commission of Pakistan member Justice (retired) Irshad Qaiser administered the oath to Qureshi.
Justice (retired) Sardar Raza Khan retired as the CEC on Thursday. The former Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, in consensus with the Pakistan Peoples Party, had appointed Khan as the CEC in 2014. He was appointed for a term of five years.
Qureshi, a senior member of the ECP, took oath as the acting CEC upon Khan’s retirement.
The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the PML-N have named three individuals each for the top post.
The government nominated Babar Yaqoob, Fazal Abbas and Arif Khan. Yaqoob is the ECP secretary who is retiring this month, while Abbas and Khan are both former federal secretaries.
Opposition Leader Shehbaz Sharif put forward the names of Nasir Mahmood Khosa, Jalil Abbas Jilani and Akhlaq Ahmed Tarar last week on behalf of the opposition.
Jilani is a diplomat who has served as the ambassador to the United States and foreign secretary. He currently serves as a senior director at the Centre for Aerospace and Security Studies.
Tarar is a member of the Federal Public Service Commission and has served as a secretary in the Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry IT and Telecom and Cabinet Division.
Khosa is a retired civil servant who served as a federal secretary. He is also the brother of Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa.
