NA speaker writes to parliamentary leaders for electoral reforms

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Spea­­ker Asad Qaiser on Thursday sent letters to parliamentary leaders of all parties in the house, informing them about a decision taken by him after consultation with Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani about formation of a parliamentary committee to carry out electoral reforms.
The letter with the subject “Appo­i­ntment of Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms”, written by a joint secretary of the parliamentary committees and a copy of which was released to the media by the National Assembly Secretariat, says that “the speaker, in consultation with the Senate chairman, has been pleased to inform you that the subject committee consisting of leaders of the parliamentary parties in the National Assembly and the Senate is required to be appointed to undertake comprehensive electoral reforms”.
“The committee shall be notified as soon as the list of the parliamentary leaders in the Senate is finalised,” says the letter, which was sent to all parliamentary leaders of the parties, hours after Mr Qaiser’s separate meetings with the Senate chairman and two key federal ministers — Information Minister Shibli Faraz and Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry.
In the meetings, it was decided that the committee would comprise all the parliamentary leaders of the parties having representation in the Senate and the National Assembly.
PML-N refuses to become part of committee The letter says the committee is being formed “in pursuant to the prime minister’s agenda, in the interest of democracy in Pakistan, to establish a credible and transparent electoral system and to put an end to all venues that allow for corrupt practices that are eroding our parlia-mentary democracy and to ensure transparent, fair and free elections at all levels”.On the other hand, the main opposition Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) said a categorical “no” to the government-proposed parliamentary committee, as party’s information secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb said that “no negotiations are possible with a person who imprisons political rivals with their daughters”. Talking to reporters in Lahore, Ms Aurangzeb said that those people were talking about electoral, parliamentary and political reforms who had put Leader of the Opposition Shehbaz Sharif and the party’s parliamentary leader in the National Assembly Khawaja Asif behind bars.
Source: dawn.com