Govt to form parliamentary committee to finalise open vote bill

ISLAMABAD: The federal government has made another progress for bringing electoral reforms following the directives of Prime Minister Imran Khan as it was decided to form a parliamentary committee to finalise the open voting bill, ARY News reported on Monday.

PM Imran Khan decided to constitute a parliamentary committee for bringing electoral reforms in order to pave way for organising transport elections in the country.

Adviser to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan met Speaker National Assembly (NA) Asad Qaiser for holding consultations over electoral reforms. They agreed to form a parliamentary committee to approve the bill for open voting.

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Babar Awan said that the federal government will have to plan immediately for holding transparent polls in future as the premier wants to end reservations on the electoral process. He said that the relevant law is in favour of all political parties in the country.

It emerged that the parliamentary committee will be headed by the NA Speaker Asad Qaiser, whereas, equal representation will be given to the opposition and the government.

The committee will formulate a strategy after reviewing the reservations of the opposition besides reviewing the pending bill of election reforms. Moreover, the committee will also hold consultations with the opposition parties regarding the constitutional amendment for Senate elections.

Read: PM sets three-month deadline for imposition of electoral reforms

Asad Qaiser said that it is inevitable to address the reservations about Senate elections and electoral reforms are the need of time. Improvements could be made in important legal matters through legislation, he added.

He urged the opposition leadership to resolve important matters possessing public interests through legislation.

During the meeting, they reviewed the resolutions submitted by the political parties of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) for giving the status of an interim province to the region. Awan said that the constitutional amendment is needed to grant interim province status to GB.

Qaiser and Awan will apprise PM Khan regarding the constitutional aspects of declaring GB an interim province.