ISLAMABAD: Parliamentary committee on Tuesday has named retired bureaucrat Sikandar Sultan Raja as new Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).

The decision was taken during a meeting of the committee headed by Federal Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari.

The participants have also finalized names of Nisar Durrani from Sindh and Shah Muhammad Jatoi from Balochistan as members of the commission.

Minister for Human Rights Shireen Mazari said it is a matter of great satisfaction that the parliament settled the matter with consensus. She said the names have been forwarded to Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan.

Earlier, PM Imran Khan wrote a letter to Leader of Opposition in National Assembly and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif and proposed names of Jamil Ahmed, Fazal Abbas Maken and Sikander Sultan Raja for the post of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC).

Among the suggested names by the premier, the opposition parties had reached consensus on the name of Sikander Sultan Raja with the government.

It is pertinent here to mention that the CEC post is vacant since December 6 and the appointments of the ECP members from Sindh and Balochistan have not been made for a year.

Let it be known that the government and the opposition had withdrawn the names that were proposed earlier for the CEC appointment.

The government had proposed the names of Babar Yaqoob Fateh, Arif Khan and Fazal Abbas Maken while the opposition had recommended Nasir Mahmood Khosa, Jalil Abbas Jilani and Akhlaq Ahmad Tarar.