Staff Reporter Islamabad
The joint opposition in the National Assembly on Sunday proposed the formation of a Parliamentary Committee comprising members from both houses to consider and approve with consensus a complete package of electoral reforms including the Elections (Amendment) Bills 2021 passed by the lower house.
The decision was made in a meeting of the Steering Committee of the joint opposition, held at the Parliament House in Islamabad.
The joint opposition maintained that any future legislation would be in consonance with parliamentary practice and precedence to achieve the required consensus on issues of national importance.
In their response to the letter of National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser, who sought opposition parties’ support in parliament over bills related to electoral reforms and accountability laws, PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif wrote that matters of wider national interest, especially legislation with far-reaching implications for the people, should be resolved through consensus oriented consultation.
The opposition parties told the speaker that a proper procedure should be followed during the joint sitting of the parliament, implying this will allow an “objective consideration” of the bills referred by the government.
The letter pointed out that the NA speaker formed the Committee on Legislative Business
on June 23, 2021 to consider the 21 bills passed by the National Assembly on 10th June this year “without allowing the required legislative procedure”.
As per the letter the committee in its three meetings could not even finalise the terms of reference for its procedural jurisdiction due to lack of support by the government members.
During this period, all the bills which were to be considered by this committee either lapsed or were rejected by the Senate and were referred to the joint sitting of parliament, “thus completely negating the purpose for which the Committee on Legislative Business was formed”.
The opposition also laid down suggestions in the letter for evolving consensus over the important legislation.
Meanwhile, the joint opposition rejected the changes in the panel on the appointment of the members of the Election Commission of Pakistan after the Senate chairman included federal ministers Fawad Chaudhry and Azam Swati in the committee.
