It's all rumour: CEC
Staff Correspondent
It is still a mystery as to how the chief election commissioner's (CEC) signature found its way into the warrant of attorney approving the appeal against the High Court stay order as he has been denying to have done so."Rumour, rumour, all rumour," CEC MA Syed told reporters yesterday responding to a question on whether he approved the appeal filing. Pressed to elaborate, the CEC said he will talk later on the issue after knowing about the Supreme Court judgement on the appeal petition filed on behalf of the Election Commission. The CEC had also termed the appeal filing a fraud. On Tuesday, he said he was not sure whether he gave the approval. Election Commissioner AK Mohammad Ali told reporters yesterday that the EC did not file any appeal. "We did not hold any meeting nor did we decide to file the appeal," he added. "If the chief election commissioner gave the approval, he did so on his own, the Election Commission is not a party to it. According to the law, the Election Commission is comprised of all other commissioners," Mohammad Ali told reporters. Many at the EC Secretariat said the confusion is an outcome of the ongoing conflict between the CEC and EC Secretary SM Zakaria. Asked whether he was responsible for all that happened over the approval, Zakaria said he was on the right track and did nothing wrong. A source close to the CEC said an election commissioner suggested to the CEC that he speaks his mind to remove the ambiguity about the approval issue. He also suggested holding of an EC meeting to discuss the latest situation, but the CEC disagreed with him. The CEC maintains that since the matter is sub judice it should be settled in court, the source added.
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