National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq has decided to summon the first meeting of recently constituted Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms after Eidul Fitr.
The 33-member committee has been formed to evaluate shortcomings of the previous electoral process and provide recommendations to hold transparent elections in the future.
According to a NA Secretariat official, the meeting has been postponed due to delays by Senate Chairman Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari in forwarding a list of 11 parliamentarians to the NA speaker.
A chairman will be elected during the committee’s first meeting while a second meeting will be called to decide the committee’s modalities.
“To pacify Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the government can give the chairmanship of the committee to an opposition party,” an adviser to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif reportedly said.
Nine members of the committee were previously members of Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms, which came up with the historic 18th Amendment.
Besides independent candidates, 18 political parties have representation in the NA. No members of Balochistan National Party-Mengal, National Party and General (r) Pervez Musharraf’s All Pakistan Muslim League have been included in the committee.
Ten political parties have representation in Senate, out of National Party is the only party with no representation in the committee and the sole addition (that has no representation in the NA) is BNP-Awami.
Center for Civic Education Zafarullah Khan Executive Director has said that the 33-member electoral reforms committee has zero representation from minorities.
“Will the majority once again decide about the minorities?” he asked.
Khan also said that the committee only has four women MPs, namely Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s Anusha Rehman, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam’s Naeema Kishwar, Pakistan People’s Party’s Shazia Mari and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Dr Shireen Mazari.
