Amid govt-opposition gridlock: No urgency to convene legislative body to revisit electoral reforms

ISLAMABAD: While the deadlock between the government and opposition parties over the 30 bills unilaterally passed by the National Assembly prevails, there seems to be no urgency in convening even the inaugural meeting of the newly constituted bipartisan parliamentary committee to revisit the rushed legislation.

The 20-member panel was created a week ago by Speaker Asad Qaiser after consultation with the government and opposition parties. “It is just eyewash. The government is not pushed about holding meaningful and productive talks on revisiting the two particular bills that inserted dozens of amendments in the Elections Act, 2017,” former Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told The News when contacted. He said that the speaker has not approached the opposition parties to hold the first meeting of the Committee on Legislative Business, showing his lack of sincerity to review these bills which were bulldozed in the National Assembly --controlled by the ruling coalition-- within no time and without any debate.

Abbasi said that an almost unanimous opinion has been voiced by different segments of society rejecting the use of the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) in the next general elections and the several amendments made in the Elections Act. Even the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has opposed many of the changes, he said, adding that unless an across-the-board consensus was hammered out, any amendments would remain inconsequential and make the next polls even more controversial. The former prime minister said that if the parliamentary committee holds any meeting at all, it will be after the July 5 all parties’ conference (APC) of the opposition. He said that the conclave would reinforce the stand taken by the opposition parties on the critical amendments in the Elections Act and demand their reversal.

Senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Rana Sanaullah told this correspondent that two solutions about the electoral reforms bills had come under discussion in the talks between the government and the opposition. One was that the government would withdraw them. Second, the amendments the opposition wants in the bills would be adopted when they will be debated in the Senate standing committee. He said since the government has moved these bills in the Senate, which have been referred to the standing committee for consideration, the opposition’s amendments would be taken up there. If they were accepted, the amended bill would be unanimously passed in the Senate and later in the National Assembly. If there was no agreement, the two sides would adopt their own course of action, he said.

The parliamentary committee, in which the ruling coalition has a majority with 12 representatives as against eight members of the opposition parties, will first firm up its terms of reference (ToRs) on the issues to be referred to it from time to time and will submit its report to the speaker. Speaker Asad Qaiser had formed the committee after accepting the opposition’s demand. For the purpose, he had consulted with some opposition members. However, he did not consult Abbasi, the former prime minister said. Abbasi was critical of the role of the speaker in running the National Assembly and other parliamentary affairs.

The committee, chaired by Shah Mahmood Qureshi, consists of cabinet members including Ali Muhammad Khan, Pervez Khattak, Asad Umer, Hammad Azhar, Shafqat Mahmood, Dr. Shireen Mazari, Dr. Farogh Naseem, Mirza Shahzad Akbar and Babar Awan besides Amir Dogar and Ghous Bux Mahar. The opposition parties are represented by Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Ahsan Iqbal, Rana Sanaullah, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Khawaja Saad Rafique, Syed Naveed Qamar and Ms. Shahida Akhtar Ali. It may be mentioned that Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhary Fawad Hussain had invited the opposition to sit with the governmentt on electoral reforms.

During budget debate the other day Fawad claimed that disunited opposition knew that their politics were over and next five year also belonged to the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led government. He said the opposition parties had the right to criticise the government but responsibility also rests with it to make positive contributions to the system. He said the opposition should come to positive politics to collectively take the country forward. In just one day -- June 10 -- a total of 21 bills, including two relating to the electoral reforms and one giving the right of appeal to the convicted Indian spy Commander Kulbhushan Sudhir Jadhav, were hurriedly passed by the government in the National Assembly. Three days earlier, it had approved nine bills.