However, CEC Justice Sardar Muhammad Raza Khan (retd) refused to administer oath to the notified two members of the ECP on the ground that in their appointment the constitutional procedure was not adopted. The CEC, in his letter to the Ministry of Law and Justice, cited that Articles 213 and 214 of the Constitution were violated in the process of the two appointments.
The SCBA chief, who is in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) nowadays, filed the petition through Advocate on Record (AOR) Syed Rafaqat Hussain Shah. According to the petition, the apex court was asked to order CEC to immediately administer oath of office from the two members who have been nominated by the government as members of the ECP.
The petition argued that CEC lacked authority or power to question the choice of nominations by the government as members of ECP since he was no more the judge of the Supreme Court or the high court. Secretary SCBA Azmatullah Chaudhry has distanced on behalf of the entire association, saying the petition was filed by Kanrani in his personal capacity and not as the president SCBA. He said: "I being the secretary of the association disown the filing of the petition." If the case was taken up by the apex court, the SCBA will move a civil miscellaneous application explaining the top court that the entire body disowns the contentions raised in the petition, he added.
He further said that neither any meeting was called by the president nor any resolution was adopted by the executive committee of the association to seek prior approval for filing the petition. Pakistan Peoples Party welcomed the CEC's decision, while the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz demanded that the government should reverse its 'unconstitutional' decision.
On the other hand, Law Minister Barrister Farogh Naseem described the CEC's decision not to administer oath to the ECP members as unconstitutional. He said that the CEC had no justification and authority to examine the validity of the notification.