ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Dr Fehmida Mirza set up on Friday a six-member committee to discuss with the Election Commission concrete procedures for the upcoming general elections, an official of the assembly secretariat told Dawn.

Minister for Parliamentary Affairs and Law Farooq H. Naek will be convener of the committee which will comprise Navid Qamar of PPP, Moulana Attaur Rehman of JUI-F, Zahid Hamid of PML-N, Bushra Gohar of ANP and independent MNA Zafar Beg Bhittani.

About the terms of reference of the committee, the official said the basic objective was to apprise the ECP of reaction of members of the National Assembly to its recent measures, including its move to write to all lawmakers of the National Assembly asking them to get their academic certificates attested which otherwise would be considered fake. But no such condition was in place for future lawmakers.

The condition of graduation for lawmakers introduced by Gen Musharraf was scraped by the present National Assembly.

Politicians across the board have also objected to the ECP’s alleged use of media to defame politicians just before elections. In his remarks on Wednesday, Law Minister Naek termed the behaviour of ECP officials `witch-hunt’.