Electoral reforms: Senate panel makes slow start in forging consensus

ISLAMABAD: A Senate panel has made a modest start in evolving a consensus on a multitude of amendments in the Elections Act and did not touch the controversial provisions in its inaugural meeting.

The Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, headed by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Taj Haider, has considered just a handful of the dozens of amendments in the poll law which were hastily passed by the National Assembly last month. The next meeting of the forum will be held after Eidul Azha.

“Confusion prevailed about the exact timing of the start of the session of the committee, which resulted in delayed participation by some of its members in its deliberations,” Jamiat-e-Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF) Senator Kamran Murtaza, who is part of the committee, told The News when contacted. He said that three other Senate panels – the House Business Advisory Committee, Poverty Alleviation and Social Safety Committee and Housing and Works Committee – were also simultaneously holding their meetings apart from the regular Senate session. This made it difficult for some members to attend the parliamentary affairs forum.

However, Kamran Murtaza said that the key amendments which were rejected by the opposition, and led to discussions between the government and the opposition, were not taken up by the committee in its first meeting. He said the panel will review each and every amendment in detail to come up with a consensus.

He said that since the government’s principal lawyer, Attorney General of Pakistan Khalid Jawed Khan, has conceded that a number of amendments were in conflict with the Constitution, the ruling coalition’s case has in fact ended. “Therefore, it will be prudent for the ruling coalition to withdraw this entire package and prepare a new one in consultation with the opposition parties.”

In a chat with this correspondent, the attorney general had earlier articulated his reservations about many of the amendments and said some of them clashed with the Constitution. He said he had advised Prime Minister Imran Khan to find a way out in consultation with the major stakeholders and political parties so that consensus electoral reforms can emerge.

Khalid Jawed Khan had also said the National Database & Registration Authority (Nadra) couldn’t be a substitute for the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which was an independent constitutional institution. He said Nadra could provide technical assistance and extend a supportive role but can’t take away the functions given to the ECP by the Constitution. No unilateral and one-sided amendments would be made in the Elections Act, he said.

Another participant of the parliamentary forum meeting said that the discussion on various amendments was not expected to be completed in a couple of meetings of the committee. He said because of the volume of the changes approved in the Elections Act by the National Assembly, several sessions would be required. Especially, he said, when the contentious amendments like the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs), giving voting right to overseas Pakistanis, transferring the powers of the ECP to Nadra, change of the cut-off date for disqualification etc., would be taken up.

Still, he said, it would be no less than a miracle to reach a consensus considering the inflexible stands taken by the government and the opposition parties on these amendments.

The two sides have apparently left it to the Senate panel to break the deadlock while two other parliamentary committees on legislative business, formed by Speaker Asad Qaiser, are not being convened to mull over these amendments. One of these forums was particularly created by the speaker to debate 30 bills including the changes in the Elections Act, which had been cleared in haste by the National Assembly in two days – June 7 and 10 – without any discussion on the floor of the house.