Islamabad: The Parliamentary Committee for Electoral Reforms has speeded up the work on the amendments in the electoral laws after reviewing the 73 reform proposals submitted before it.
The panel has reportedly decided to finalize the recommendations by next week and bring reforms in the Election Act before the end of the National Assembly term, which Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif has said will be in August.
The in-camera meeting of the Parliamentary Committee for Electoral Reforms was chaired by its Chairman and Economic Affairs Minister Sardar Ayaz Sadiq.
Law Minister Azam Tarar, Dr. Fahmida Mirza, Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar, Senator Taj Haider, MNA Afzal Dhandla, Senator Manzoor Ahmed, Senator Kamran Murtaza and Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) attended the meeting. of
Talking to the media after the meeting, Sadiq ruled out the possibility of banning any political party, saying that there is no proposal to ban any party as the task of the committee is to carry out electoral reforms.
“We will review the contentious issues on Thursday besides drafting consensus proposals. Contentious issues that require further discussion will be reviewed on Monday.
Sadiq said that there was a detailed discussion on the proposals regarding the electoral reforms and effective proposals were considered for the transparent conduct of the elections.
He said that many works were done during the tenure of former Chief Justice Saqib Nisar, the committee is trying to fix the controversial decisions related to elections.
The proposals
Sources said the committee was suggested to give a specific time limit to the presiding officer to compile the results and hold him to account in case of any delay in the process.
The presiding officer was also advised to give a reasonable reason for the delay in compiling the election results.
Besides, it was suggested in the meeting that the presiding officer will send the photocopy of the signed result to the returning officer and it was also suggested to provide high speed internet and smartphone to the presiding officer. It was also proposed to allow polling agents to carry camera phones.
The committee was recommended to install CCTV cameras at every polling station booth to assist in polling review, counting and compilation of results and to provide camera recordings in case of complaints and as evidence.
Other proposals include jacking up the election expenditure limit for candidates of National and Provincial Assemblies, allowing candidates to get video of any polling station by paying a fee, taking action against presiding and reviewing officers under criminal law for negligence. included. To display the complete list of voters outside each polling station and to allow security personnel posted outside the polling station to enter the polling station in case of emergency with the permission of the presiding officer.
As part of the proposal to increase the election expenses, it was suggested to spend 4 million to 10 million rupees for the election campaign for the National Assembly seats and 2 million to 4 million rupees for the election campaign for the provincial assembly seats.
In the meeting, it was also considered to punish the election staff involved in election rigging from 6 months to 3 years.
In the meeting, it was also suggested to decide the violation of code of conduct within 7 days instead of 15 days.
Another suggestion was to upload the final list of polling staff on the ECP website so that candidates can challenge the posting of polling staff in the constituency within 10 days.
