Open letter to PM: Shah proposes APC on electoral reforms

Opposition leader criticises govt for slow progress of parliamentary panel formed last year.

ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Khursheed Shah reprimanded the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) on Monday over its slackening interest in electoral reforms and appealed for an all parties conference (APC) to revive urgency, set direction and forge consensus on the issue.

Shah came up with the suggestion just days after his party’s co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari called for reforming the electoral system.

The opposition leader also singled out for criticism the parliamentary panel constituted last year to formulate a new system, saying it was far too slow in its work.

“I feel that the government’s focus on electoral reforms is drifting away since the end of [PTI’s] sit-in. Electoral reforms are need of the hour. The process should be completed as soon as possible,” Shah said in his letter to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

On the request of the prime minister, National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq had formed a parliamentary committee to prepare a draft bill for legal and constitutional reforms in the electoral system. The committee, which was constituted weeks before Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-Insaf (PTI) started its protest sit-in in Islamabad last August, held several meetings and gathered over 1,200 recommendations from different stakeholders.

Later, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar-led committee handed over the task of vetting these recommendations to a sub-committee led by Zahid Hamid. The sub-panel became almost dysfunctional in December last year after a special court trying former military ruler Pervez Musharraf directed the government to investigate the role of Hamid as law minister to Musharraf when he declared emergency in the country in 2007.

The sub-committee has again resumed work this month and held a few meetings. Its next meeting is due on April 1.

The PTI, which launched a protest movement against alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections, initially participated in the meetings of the parent committee when it started working. However, since its members submitted their resignations on August 19, 2014 to the NA speaker to augment pressure on government, it has not returned to the committee.

For its part, the government claims that it had slowed down the panel’s work in anticipation of PTI leaders rejoining the lower and upper houses of parliament and participating in the meetings of the panel.

Shah warned that any further delay in completing work of the panel will give an impression to the general public that the government was not sincere in bringing about reforms in the electoral system.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 31^st, 2015.