The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has submitted various recommendations to Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms for making electoral process free, fair and transparent.
According to sources, a draft unified electoral laws bill will be finalized this month. Most of the reforms have been derived by the ECP from its Five Years Strategic Plan 2014-18.
The draft bill is likely to be approved this month. Provincial governments have also been taken on board in this regard.
The ECP has proposed that the scrutiny of candidates’ nomination papers should be made strictly in light of Articles 62 and 63, punishing the people, who impede women from casting their votes.
The ECP has proposed comprehensive reforms in Political Parties Order 2002, including reforms in the registration process of political parties, party based elections system and allotment of election symbols.
In the draft law, the ECP also recommended to replace seeking of assets to submitting wealth statement, various recommendations have been proposed in postal belts process, polling scheme and increasing polling duration.
The ECP had started five-year 16-point Strategic Plan in 2014 targeting to remove flaws in electoral laws by 2018.