The Pakistan Awami Tehrik of Dr Tahirul Qadri has decided to move the Supreme Court to seek the removal of all four members of the Election Commission of Pakistan and immediate freezing of the discretionary funds of the prime minister and chief ministers.Knowledgeable PAT sources say that two separate petitions on these subjects have almost been finalised and will be made public at a news conference on Thursday (tomorrow).

The PAT thinks that the ECP is not properly constituted as all its members (not the chairman) were appointed in violation of the procedure provided in the Constitution.The petition explains the procedure of the appointment of a member of the ECP under Article 213 (2-A) and the confirmation hearings by a parliamentary committee. Holding that these appointments are void ab initio, the petition will seek the removal of all the four members and appointment of their replacements through the procedure mentioned in the basic law.Under the existing provisions of the Constitution, a member of the Election Commission can be removed only through a procedure enshrined in Article 209 of the Constitution, which is also applicable to a judge.

However, the PAT petition says that this article is not applicable to the existing members of the ECP as their induction was flawed from the very outset.The second petition says that the use of discretionary funds by the prime minister and the chief ministers so close to the elections is nothing but pre-poll rigging. Similarly, the use of development funds at this stage is also unfair.To provide all the election candidates a level-playing field, the apex court should freeze these funds, the petition says.Such an action could be taken by the apex court even as a pre-emptive step against poll rigging, the petition says.The petition says that the funds in question should be used to subsidise six essential items.It is not clear how long the Supreme Court would take to decide these petitions.