Direct elections on women’s seats under study

Parliamentary panel seeks opinions from all parties

ISLAMABAD:

Parliamentary panel on electoral reforms is considering changing procedure of elections on women seats from indirect to direct polls.

The committee on Wednesday sought recommendations from all political parties on proposals to hold direct elections on the seats, reserved for women in the lower and upper house of parliament, including in the four provincial assemblies.



The subcommittee of parliamentary panel on electoral reforms is finalising a package of constitutional and legal reforms to improve election system in the country.

Zahid Hamid, chairman of the subcommittee, told reporters that his panel has asked all the political parties represented in parliament to submit their recommendations on such key proposals within the next two weeks.

On the demand of political parties, the government in August last year constituted a parliamentary panel to prepare a package to reform outdated electoral system and laws that govern it.

The main committee, headed by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, received more than 1,200 recommendations from different stakeholders. It handed over task of vetting all these proposals to a subcommittee. The subcommittee would prepare a bill to be submitted before parliament.

Some reform proposals need amendments in the Constitution while others can be incorporated in the election laws with simple legislation. Currently, every political party submits a list of its candidates to the Election Commission of Pakistan for seats reserved for women in each of the legislatures.

Similarly, senators are also elected through an indirect election.

There has been a criticism over these indirect elections and to change this system would require amendments in the Constitution.

Given the current composition of parliament, PML-N would need support of major opposition parties to make any changes in the constitutional provisions. Constituted on the eve of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s 126-day-long dharna in Islamabad over alleged rigging in the 2013 general elections, the committee was supposed to complete its work by the end of 2014.

Meanwhile, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has submitted a proposal to increase the number of seats for Balochistan in the national and provincial assembly.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2015.