Parliamentary body for electoral reforms formed

ISLAMABAD:

 

The National Assembly on Saturday passed a motion authorising the newly-elected speaker of the National Assembly, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, to constitute a parliamentary committee for electoral reforms in order to ensure free, fair and transparent elections.

The motion, moved by PML-N’s Murtaza Javed Abbasi, said the committee will present its report within three months from the day of its notification.

The authority to nominate members of the committee has been vested in the NA speaker.
The motion highlighted that electoral laws were in need of improvement so as to hold free, fair and transparent elections in the country.

It is important to mention here that the issue of electoral reforms has been a rallying cry of the coalition government led by the PML-N. The newly-elected prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, as well as his allies, have emphasised the country could ill afford another election in the absence of certain important changes to the laws pertaining to elections.

Meanwhile, the NA session on Saturday also passed a resolution strongly condemning the physical and verbal attack on Punjab Assembly Deputy Speaker Dost Muhammad Mazari by the PTI and PML-Q members to sabotage the process of election of the Punjab chief minister.

The resolution moved by PML-N's Shaza Fatima, voiced concerns over the security of the members of the Punjab Assembly and blatant violation of the constitution.

It urged that law and order be restored and the process of election of the chief minister be completed. The resolution also demanded that those responsible for the incident be dealt with according to the law in order to prevent such actions in future.