Ruling party, PPP oppose PTI’s key election reform proposals

ISLAMABAD: The members of the ruling PML-N and the main opposition PPP in the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms on Thursday opposed two key proposals of the PTI - appointment of returning officers (ROs) from the military and changing the mechanism for the appointment of a caretaker government before general elections.

Talking to reporters after presiding over a meeting of a subcommittee, Law Minister Zahid Hamid claimed that the PTI’s two proposals had been rejected by a majority of the members.

The PTI in its new proposals submitted to the committee had called for drawing the ROs from the defence forces. The PTI had also suggested that the interim government should be appointed through a parliamentary committee and there should be no role of the prime minister and the opposition leader in the process.

The minister said the parties had no objection to the PTI’s proposal regarding elections under army’s supervision but said it was the discretion of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to decide about the deployment of troops at polling stations.

Ishaq Dar rejects possiblity of early election; hopes reforms will be finalised before budget
Mr Hamid said they also supported the PTI’s proposal that the members of the parliament should be allowed to visit the constituencies. He, however, said the ECP was against this proposal. The issue would now be decided by the main committee.

Mr Hamid had earlier claimed that his subcommittee would finish its job on Thursday and send the unresolved issues to the main committee. However, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar after presiding over the meeting of the PCER in the afternoon announced that the subcommittee would now hold meetings on a daily basis.

When contacted, PPP’s parliamentary leader Syed Naveed Qamar criticised the working of the two committees, saying it seemed they were playing a football game. He said the subcommittee had decided to refer the unresolved matters to the main committee but the latter sent the ball back to the court of the subcommittee.

Dr Arif Alvi of the PTI told Dawn that if the committee rejected their proposals the party would move amendments to the bills whenever these would be tabled in the parliament.

The finance minister expressed the hope that the electoral reforms package would be ready before the announcement of the next budget. He said the committee had received 631 new proposals from the parties and the citizens after presentation of the second interim report on electoral reforms by him in the Senate and National Assembly in December last year.

The minister said they had decided to first finish the work on the unification of election laws after which they would work on the unification of election rules. In the third and last phase, the constitutional amendments required for the electoral reforms would be taken up.

In reply to another question, the minister ruled out the possibility of before-time elections. He said no such plan was under consideration at any stage. However, he said, it was the prerogative of the prime minister to make any decision regarding holding of early elections.

He said it was after 40 years that they were changing the elections laws considering it a national cause. He said work on electoral reforms got delayed due to the issue of the military courts. “Now we intend to complete the necessary work on a fast pace.”

About the possibility of using electronic voting machines and biometric verification machines, Mr Dar said it would be premature to make any statement on the matter as they were still discussing the effectiveness of the use of technology and the issues related to the national security.

It may be recalled that the PCER and its subcommittee formed by the National Assembly speaker in 2014 have already held over 100 meetings but the contentious issues such as the use of EVMs and BVMs and the right of vote to the overseas Pakistanis are still lingering.

The draft of the Election Law 2017 had been presented by Mr Dar as the head of the parliamentary committee through an interim report on December 20 last year in both the houses of the parliament. Presenting the report, the minister had stated that the committee had decided to seek a feedback from all the stakeholders, including the parliamentarians, within 30 days after which the committee would prepare a final draft.

Published in Dawn, April 14th, 2017