ISLAMABAD: Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms on Wednesday gave a nod to constitutional amendments and amendments in electoral laws that needed in electoral reforms package for transparency and fairness in the general elections.
The members expressed its satisfaction over the pace of working of the committee to proposed electoral reforms for the transparency in the election process but still not in hurry to complete the task of bringing the electoral reform package in Parliament for the legislation.
The Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms held its meeting on Wednesday with its Chairman Finance Minister Ishaq Dar in the chair , which reviewed progress made by its committee so far regarding electoral reforms package.
Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Electoral Reforms Zahid Hamid briefed the committee that the sub-committee had conducted 46 meetings till now and had reviewed seven laws related to the election process in Pakistan.
Zahid Hamid also briefed the committee that draft of the “Unified Election Act” and the “Unified Election Rules” was in the final stages of preparation in consultation with the members of different political parties.
The final draft will be presented to the main committee within the next 2-3 weeks.The committee was also informed that new rules propose to announce the ‘Action Plan of the Elections’ six months prior to the date of elections so that the process is complete before the caretaker government assumes office.
The recommendations also give out the procedure of the immediate declaration of the election results and the method of filing and disposing off election petitions and the issues related to filling of form no 14.
The new recommendations will also lay down the procedure to conduct the Local Government and Senate elections.The recommendations from the members of Senate regarding the Senate elections are complete and will soon be sent to the sub-committee to be incorporated in the final draft.
While chairing the meeting, Chairman Parliamentary Committee on Electoral reforms and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said that matter of Right of Vote for the Overseas Pakistanis also needed to be resolved.
He also referred to the Supreme Court directions in this regard.The committee also approved the name of Arif Alvi from PTI as the Chairman of another sub-committee of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms to submit proposals on voting rights for overseas Pakistanis, use of electronic voting machines and bio-metric verification of the voters.
The finance minister said the committee welcomes valuable suggestions from all sections of the political leadership as well as the members of the Civil Society.” We have looked into over 4000 suggestions received from the different sections of the society. The purpose of all this work is to make well thoughtout recommendations which will benefit the election process in the times to come.”
The minister also said that the main committee will conduct its next meeting as soon as the sub-committees complete their work.Ishaq Dar also asked the members of all the political parties to seek opinion of their political parties on the draft recommendations as the process requires input and approval from the political leadership of the country.
While talking to newsmen after chairing the meeting, Chairman Parliamentary Committee on Electoral reforms and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar said the maximum task has been completed and it is hoped that the sub-committee will complete drafting of the constitutional amendments and reforms in electoral laws within next two to three weeks. “There is still time of two and half year remaining for the next elections so the committee was not in hurry,” he said.
When asked for the deadline of completion of task, the finance minister said no deadline at this time could be given for finalisation of the electoral reforms package but it is likely that the sub-committee completes t drafting of the reform package within next two to three weeks. “And once the committee completes its task, the electoral reforms package would be presented in the Parliament,” he said.
He said those constitutional amendments on which there was a consensus these should be drafted in the electoral reform package and those on which there was a difference of opinion in the sub-committee would be presented for the main committee to make its decision.
