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.

She said that these government people “should be embarrassed and ashamed of themselves”, instead of talking about electoral reforms.

Ms Aurangzeb said that the proposal of electoral reforms coming from those who abducted election officials in Daska was “laughable”.

“The selected prime minister vomits lies, accusations and allegations every time he opens his mouth. He reeks of prejudice, envy and animosity.

“How can anyone negotiate electoral reforms with those who are a product of the vote-theft and RTS rigging?” she asked.

“Any dialogue with a selected prime minister, who gave the people nothing but lies, misery, cussing and abuse, is impossible. Nobody can trust a selected prime minister whose every step leads to the theft of public sugar, wheat, flour, electricity, gas, medicine and LNG,” Ms Aurangzeb said.

Earlier, during his meeting with the government ministers, NA Speaker Asad Qaiser said the recent Senate elections had raised a serious question mark on the electoral process and had necessitated revamping of the entire electoral process.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had formally asked the NA speaker through a letter on Wednesday to engage the opposition by forming a parliamentary committee on electoral reforms.

In his letter, the prime minister had said that “filthy business of sale-purchase of votes” had been observed in the Senate polls.

“We [the government] have submitted a bill for meaningful electoral reforms to remove the prevailing stigma attached to our electoral process. I would request you to immediately form an inter-party parliamentary committee to discuss these reforms and come to an agreement on how to introduce best practices, including the use of technology and introduction of electronic voting machines, to strengthen our electoral system and democracy,” said the letter.

“I would also suggest a definite time frame for reaching an agreement on all these issues that have marred the transparency of our elections so that enough time is given to institute the required reforms before the next general election. It is in the interest of democracy in Pakistan to establish a credible and transparent electoral system and put an end to all venues that allow corrupt practices that are eroding our parliamentary democracy,” the prime minister said in the letter.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2021