ISLAMABAD - Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms on Wednesday unanimously elected Finance Minister Ishaq Dar as chairman of the committee to come up with proposals to remove flaws and anomalies in the prevalent electoral system.
In its maiden meeting the 33-member multi-party body with majority of members belonging to ruling coalition elected Ishaq Dar as its chairman with no opposition coming from any member.
The Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms was formed on July 25 in the light of the request extended to Speaker National Assembly by Premier Nawaz Sharif but the matter was delayed firstly on non-allocation of quota in the committee for Senate and secondly the late submission of the names for the committee by the chairman Senate.
Ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and its allies had slashed down their share in the committee to give representation to the smaller parties in the parliament and even the one-man parliamentary parties were also given representation in the committee to make it more representative in scope.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf was given more representation in the committee with the aim to address its concerns regarding the flaws in the prevalent electoral system in the country, a senior member of the committee and a cabinet member informed The Nation.
The notification of Ishaq Dar as chairman of the committee was duly issued by the National Assembly Secretariat soon after his election, and now the committee members would be preparing the terms of reference and working mode for the body in the next few days.
A member of the committee informed that the parties have already prepared their proposals for electoral reforms and they would place the same before the committee members when it would initiate its regular deliberations in a next few days.
The inaugural meeting of the committee was attended by Raza Rabbani, Zahid Hamid, Naveed Qamar, Ishaq Dar, Mushahid Hussain Sayed, Aftab Sherpao, Rafiq Rajwana, Shazia Marri, Dr Shireen Mazari, Ijazul Haq, Shafqat Mehmood, Abdul Qadir Baloch, Anousha Rehman, Murtaza Javed Abbasi, Abdul Hakeem Baloch and Talha Mehmood.
There are 12 members from upper house while 22 from lower house of the parliament in the 33 members committee with 19 members representing the ruling alliance while 14 from the opposition parties. In all some 16 parliamentary parties have representation in the committee with some of the parties having nominal representation in the parliament with only one or two members.
According to notification issued from National Assembly secretariat, the ruling PML-N nominated eight members including Senator Muhammad Ishaq Dar, Senator Malik Muhammad Rafique Rajwana, Zahid Hamid, Anusha Rehman Khan Advocate, Lt Gen (Retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch, Murtaza Javed Abbasi, Abdul Hakeem Baloch and Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry for the committee.
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), the major opposition party in the National Assembly, nominated Syed Naveed Qamar, Shazia Mari, Senator Aitzaz Ahsan, Senator Mian Raza Rabbani and Senator Farooq Hamid Naek for the committee.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) named Shafqat Mehmood, Dr Shireen Mazari and Dr Arif Alvi while the MQM nominated Senator Col (Retd) Syed Tahir Hussain Mashhadi, Naeema Kishwar Khan and Dr Muhammad Farooq Sattar.
Abdul Rahim Mandokhail from PkMAP, Aftab Ahmad Khan Sherpao from Qaumi Watan Party, Ejaz ul Haq from PML-Z, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed from Awami Muslim League, Sahibzada Tariq Ullah from JI, Senator Haji Mohammad Adeel from ANP, Usman Khan Tarakai from Awami Jamhuri Ittehad Pakistan, Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi from National Peoples Party, Ghaus Bux Khan Mahar from PML-Functional, Syed Ghazi Ghulab Jamal from Independent members of the National Assembly, Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed from PML-Q, Senator Mir Israrullah Khan Zehri from BNP-A, Senator Hilalur Rehman from FATA and Senator Muhammad Talha Mehmood from JUI-F will also be part of the committee.