ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar here on Tuesday chaired 20th meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms (PCER).
The Sub-Committee unanimously submitted its Report regarding the Draft Elections Bill, 2017, the Draft Elections Rules, 2017 (being sent to the Election Commission of Pakistan for finalization as per Elections Bill, 2017) for consideration and approval of the PCER. The PCER has also been informed about the Draft Constitution (27th Amendment) Bill, 2017.
Since its formation, the Parliamentary Sub-Committee held 70 meetings and submitted seven Progress Reports to the PECR.
It examined the following 9 Laws and the Constitution relating to elections, namely the Electoral Rolls Act, 1974 (Act No. XXI of 1974); the Delimitation of Constituencies Act, 1974 (Act No. XXXIV of 1974); the Senate (Election) Act, 1975 (Act No. LI of 1975); the Representation of the People Act, 1976 (Act No. LXXXV of 1976); the Election Commission Order, 2002 (Chief Executive's Order No.1 of 2002); the Conduct of General Elections Order, 2002 (Chief Executive's Order No.7 of 2002); the Political Parties Order, 2002(Chief Executive's Order No.18 of 2002); the Qualifications to Hold Office Order 2002 (Chief Executive's Order No. 19 of 2002); and the Allocation of Symbols Order, 2002.
The PCER has held 20 meetings so far.
In its today's meeting, the PCER discussed the Report of the Sub-Committee referred to above and adopted the same and decided that the Draft Elections Bill, 2017, be presented to the Senate and National Assembly of Pakistan for consideration and views of the honorable parliamentarians within 30-days to the National Assembly Secretariat for the consideration of the PCER.
It was also decided to put it on website for civil society comments and suggestions as well.
A number of honorable members of the PCER expressed their reservations regarding the 10% turnout of the women voters with reference to clause 9 of the Draft Elections Bill, 2017 and proposed that the same should be 5%.
About this matter final decision will be taken in subsequent meeting of the PCER.
With reference to the Draft Constitution (27th Amendment) Bill, 2017, the PCER decided that it may be finalized by the Sub-Committee by keeping in view the other proposals relating to the Constitutional provisions requiring amendments, as and when received.
On this occasion, a team of experts gave demonstration on Bio-metric Voters Identification (BVI) and Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) to the Committee.
The meeting was attended Zahid Hamid, Minister for Law and Justice & Climate Change, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Abdul Qadir Baloch, Minister for States and Frontier Regions, Murtaza Javed Abbasi, Deputy Speaker, National Assembly, Anusha Rehman Khan, Minister of State for Information Technology and Telecommunications, Dr. Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Minister of State for Capital Administration and Development Division, Syed Naveed Qamar, MNA, Shazia Marri, MNA, Shafqat Mehmood, MNA, Dr. Shireen Mehrunnisa Mazari, MNA, S.A. Iqbal Quadri, MNA, Sahibzada Tariq Ullah, MNA, Ms. Naeema Kishwar Khan, MNA, Usman Khan Tarakai, MNA, Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, MNA, Muhammad Ijaz-ul-Haq, MNA, Syed Ghazi Gulab Jamal, MNA, Senator MushahidUllah Khan, Senator Saleem Zia, Senator Aitzaz Ahsan, Senator Syed Shibli Faraz, Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, Senator Hidayat Ullah and Asia Nasir, MNA.
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