Islamabad - The National Assembly Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs Wednesday deferred the Elections (Amendment) Act, 2017.

The Bill, which was moved by MNA Naeema Kishwer Khan, is pertaining to the declaration of finality of prophethood and article 62, 63 of the Constitution.

According to the bill, the amendment has been moved after misgivings were expressed in the National Assembly regarding the wording of the declarations by the candidate in the nomination form (FORM A), and in order to avoid further controversy, there was a consensus among the political parties that the original text of declaration and oath by the person nominated should be restored in totality.

The committee, which met ion the chair of MNA Dr Shezra Mansab Ali Khan Kharal, deferred the bill after discussion.

During the meeting, Secretary Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs presented implementation status of the previous recommendations of the Committee.

He informed that the ministry sent letters to the concerned department for implementation of the committee’s directions.

The representative from the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs while briefing about the functioning of Prime Minister’s Public Affairs and Grievances Wing, said the Wing processes complaints regarding the financial assistance sought by poor, affectees of natural disasters, terrorism. It also considers complaints regarding employment and services issues, matters related to police, property, land and family disputes, provision of basic amenities like infrastructure and utilities. It also addresses requests and recommendations referred by the parliamentarians.

Additional Secretary, Election Commission of Pakistan, said that his office uploaded all representations and provided facility to check representations, map other relevant information on website. After detailed deliberation, the committee recommended that date of hearing should be finalised and uploaded on website as early as possible. 

The Chief Operating Officer PIA apprised the committee that due to heavy losses on the NYC routes the PIA is in the process of restructuring its routes to minimise them and expand through capacity swapping on economically viable routes.

MNAa Malik Ihtebar Khan, Dr Nisar Ahmad Jatt, Rasheed Ahmad Khan, Shazia Mubashar, Shahida Rehmani, Nafeesa Inayatullah Khan Khattak, Sayed Essa Nori and Naeema Kishwer Khan attended the meeting.

Senior officers of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Law & Justice, Housing and Works, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and Pakistan International Airline (PIA) were also present.