Parliamentary panel on electoral reforms to review Articles 62, 63

Seeks recommendations from political parties to simplify the two contentious articles

ISLAMABAD: The parliamentary panel working on reforming electoral system of the country has asked the political parties to submit their recommendations on Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution by next week.

The sub-committee on the electoral reforms on Wednesday discussed the two contentious articles.

“The committee has asked representatives of political parties in the committee to come up with their recommendations to simplify articles 62 and 63,” said Zahid Hamid who heads the panel.

Article 62 stipulates the conditions that a candidate should fulfill to be eligible to contest elections for national, provincial assemblies and the Senate. Article 63 elaborates conditions under which a person can be disqualified from the parliament. Amendments in these articles over the years, especially during military rule of General Ziaul Haq, saw many ambiguous terms being added.

The amended articles focused on ambiguous religious injunctions without elaborating on any of them, shifts focus of scrutiny of nomination papers to arbitrary interpretation of Islamic injunctions instead of any tangible scrutiny.

The sub-panel is vetting recommendations of all stakeholders given to the bipartisan parliamentary committee on electoral reforms. The committee had been constituted last year to bring reforms in the election system of the country.

The recommendations of this sub-panel will be complied as a draft legislative package proposing changes in the prevailing election laws and constitutional provisions relating to elections to be presented to the parliament.

Hamid said that they have also sought recommendations from political parties on whether dual nationality holders should be allowed to contest elections.

It has also asked the parliamentarians from the federally administered tribal areas (Fata) to give their input on proposals for making elections for FATA senators transparent.

Two of the proposals currently under discussion include holding of direct elections where people of FATA vote for their Senators or make a council like the Gilgit-Baltistan Council which may elect senators from these areas.