THE joint opposition in Parliament has asked National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser to constitute a new Parliamentary Committee to take up electoral reforms as a whole in the form of a “complete package”.
The demand was made by Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif through a letter which he had written to the Speaker on behalf of all the opposition parties in Parliament after a meeting of the Steering Committee of the joint opposition on Sunday.
The opposition also demanded that issues of national interest, especially legislation with wide-ranging long-term impact on the people of Pakistan, should be resolved through consensus-oriented consultation.
The demands of the opposition came in response to a letter written by the Speaker National Assembly to the Leader of the Opposition in the House proposing activation of the Parliamentary Committee on Legislative Business which he had formed to consider 21 bills that had been bulldozed by the government in the National Assembly on June 10 in the absence of the opposition members.
The opposition, however, maintained that the said Committee had been formed “without following the required legislative procedure” and despite holding three meetings, it could not even finalize its terms of reference for its procedural jurisdiction due to lack of support by the government members.
The Opposition Leader proposed to the Speaker that a Parliamentary Committee composed of the members from both Houses of Parliament should be formed to consider and approve with consensus a complete package of electoral reforms that should also include the election bills which were passed by the National Assembly but could not sail through the Senate within the constitutionally stipulated 90 days.
The action of the previous Committee or formation of a new one is a minor issue and should not be a stumbling block to progress on the matter.
If the previous Committee could not even agree on its terms of reference (which means it made no virtual progress in its work), there is absolutely no harm in the formation of a new Committee and that too consisting of members from the both Houses as the Senate too has equal stakes in the legislative process.
Any consensus developed by members drawn from both Houses and with equal strength from the treasury and the opposition benches would make it easier to get the recommendations on electoral reforms passed by the two Houses, obviating the need to go to the joint sitting of Parliament.
There are bright prospects for consensus on electoral reforms as almost all stakeholders want the electoral process to be highly fair and transparent.
If an agreement can be reached on the 112th Constitutional Amendment Bill, which contained ticklish and sensitive issues including those relating to provincial autonomy, there is no reason differences can be sorted out in the spirit of give and take on the issue of electoral reforms provided both sides demonstrate flexibility in their attitude and agree on a comprehensive package of reforms that takes care of all aspects of the election process not just voting and tabulation/announcement of the results.
It has to be realized that introduction and use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) is not the only answer to the challenge of making the election fair and transparent as a majority of the democratic nations are successfully holding non-controversial elections through means other than use of EVMs.
The comments made by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry that electoral reforms was not the agenda of Prime Minister Imran Khan or Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf but it was a national agenda are also pertinent as these indicate the Government has realized that there are also other stakeholders to the issue of electoral reforms.
He rightly pointed out that it would be a great achievement of the political system if an electoral system was established under which all the political leadership could trust the election results.
In this backdrop, there is no justification to consider convening of the joint session of Parliament before a consensus is achieved.
There is still enough time for the next general election and therefore, proper and decent procedure should be followed to get the required legislation passed instead of showing indecent haste that sparks rumours about ill-intentions.
