ISLAMABAD - Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has proposed the name of Justice (retd) Naseem Sikandar to fill the vacancy created by the withdrawal of candidature by Justice (retd) Zahid Qurban Alvi from the list of three potential candidates forwarded for the slot of Chief Election Commissioner from the government side. Sources aware of the development informed TheNation that this new entry into the list of government candidates would not make any difference, as the main opposition party PML-N, whose approval is vital for evolving consensus and achieving the two-third strength in the 12-member Parliamentary Committee dealing the matter, had rejected the process on the ground that they could not enter into consultations with a convicted Prime Minister and could not even consider the names proposed by him for filling the slot.The only benefit the government would draw from this fresh nomination would be to gain some more time to convince PML-N on some common name. Now the 14-day time to the committee would be counted from today which otherwise would be the closing date for the committee to accomplish the task following the presentation of the three-member list to the committee by Leader of Opposition on May 24.Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Ch. Nisar Ali Khan has made it loud and clear that they would not enter into any sort of consultation with the government on the appointment of the new Chief Election Commissioner as they consider the whole exercise flawed as they could not consider the names proposed from the government side by a convicted Prime Minister.Some insiders in the PML-N said that they only way out for the government to get out of this quagmire is that they should accept any of the three candidates forwarded by the Leader of Opposition.Under the statutes governing the working of the committee in case of disagreement between the Leader of the House and Leader of Opposition on any person to be appointed as CEC both of them would forward a list of three candidates each to the committee and then the committee with two-third of its strength could select a name.In the given situation it would be next to impossible that without support of the PML-N the committee could attain two-third strength in the 12-member committee as five out of six opposition members in the committee belong to PML-N. The sources in the government informed TheNation that PPP was in hurry to appoint new CEC as the Supreme Court of Pakistan has taken up the case of Speaker’s ruling in the PM’s disqualification case and sooner or later the matter would likely to be referred to the Chief Election Commissioner and they were not comfortable with Justice Shakirullah Jan, the Acting Chief Election Commissioner.On the other hand, PML-N was comfortable with the presence of Acting Chief Election Commissioner Justice Shakirullah Jan as he was among one of the three candidates recommended by Nisar to the committee, the sources.It is pertinent to mention here that the PML-N had sent the names of Justice (retd) Fakurruddin G. Ibrahim, Justice (retd) Nasir Aslam Zahid and Justice Shakirullah Jan, who is currently holding the office as Acting CEC. While the fresh list of PPP candidates included Justice (retd) Naseem Sikandar, Justice (retd) Munir A. Shaikh and Justice (retd) Amirul Mulk Mangal.

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