Islamabad, the 10th May, 2016: Finance Minister, Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar chaired the 16th meeting of Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms at the Parliament House Tuesday morning.

At the outset, Minutes of the 15th session of the Committee were presented before the meeting and confirmed.

The meeting thereafter reviewed proposed amendments in the Constitution relating to the Election Commission of Pakistan, particularly focusing on rules and regulations for appointment of Chief Election Commissioner and four Members of the Commission.

Giving details of the proceedings to media later, Minister for Law, Zahid Hamid said the Sub-committee of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms had carried out spadework on the constitutional amendments relating to the ECP and shared its report with the main Committee. The proposed Constitutional Bill he said, envisages to amend articles 211, 213, 215, 217, 218, 219 and 222.

Accordingly for appointment of Chief Election Commissioner, a retired judge of the Supreme Court or a person qualified to be the judge of Supreme Court or a senior government servant or a technocrat could be considered.

As for appointment of four members of the commission, one member would be taken from each province.  A retired judge of the high court or a person who qualifies to be judge of the high court or a senior government officer or technocrat could be considered for appointment as member of the Election Commission. As a onetime exercise, initially to secure institutional memory two members of the Commission shall stand retired after two and a half years while the other two would retire after the next two and a half years.

Besides holding elections of the national and provincial assemblies, the ECP would also hold election of local bodies, for which necessary amendments were being proposed.

Mr. Zahid Hamid said there was broad agreement on all the proposed amendments. The chair with consensus of the house, decided that the Committee would meet on next Monday and finalize the proposed bill for submission to the National Assembly. In the intervening period, all political parties may firm up their inputs for any changes in the draft amendments.

The meeting was also attended by Mr. Zahid Hamid, Minister for Law and Justice/Climate Change,Lt. Gen. (retd.) Abdul Qadir Baloch, Minister for State and Frontier Regions, Ms. Anusha Rehman Khan Adocate, Minister of State for Information Technology & Telecommunications, Dr. Tariq Fazal Chaudhry, Minister of State for CADD, Mr. Abdul Qahar Khan Wadan, Mr. Ghous Bux Khan Mahar, Mr. Usman Khan Tarakai, Mr. Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, Mr. Muhammad       Ijaz-ul-Haq, Sahibzada Tariq Ullah, Mr. Shafqat Mehmood, Mr. S.A. Iqbal Qadri, MNAs, Senator Sitara Ayaz, Senator Syed Shibili Faraz and Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed and  Officers of  Election Commission of Pakistan & NADRA.