ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Law & Justice Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar said on Thursday the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms has completed 99 per cent of work, explaining that the pending things were not politically contentious issues.
In addition, the law minister while talking to media after the meeting said that the best thing about Thursday’s meeting was that a consensus was reached on the things that were not agreed upon earlier.
Surprisingly, the minister revealed that the proposal to make parliament as the supreme authority in matters pertaining to ceasing a party or the membership of a member of the party instead of the Supreme Court has already been dropped by the committee.
Giving credit to chairman of the committee – Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Sardar Ayaz Sadiq – the law minister said that “the chairman has thoughtfully resolved 99 per cent of issues” being deliberated by the committee in its 3rd in-camera meeting held at Parliament House today.
Referring to the remaining one per cent issues, the law minister said that PTI’s Senator Syed Ali Zafar has said that he would give his suggestions to the committee on the remaining issues.
Tarar, however, clarified that the pending issues were not of political nature as they were more of legal and technical nature. “These are not politically contentious issues rather of technical and legal nature,” he said.
Subsequently, Tarar while responding to a question about the proposal of empowering the parliament instead of the Supreme Court to cease a political party said that “the issue was dropped in a previous meeting.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Tarar had categorically said that there would be no extension in the term of the National Assembly but kept the option of early dissolution of the assembly open, saying no one has the knowledge of “Ghayb” (unseen or all that is hidden).
Minister for Commerce Naveed Qamar— of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) — who was also walking out of the conference room after attending the meeting revealed that it was the PPP’s proposal to dissolve the remaining legislatures on Aug 8, four days before the completion of their five-year term.
The proposal to dissolve the national and two provincial legislatures – Sindh and Balochistan – can be dissolved a few days before the end of their term to give an additional 30 days to political parties to run their election campaigns. Both the ministers had, however, clarified that a decision with regard to early dissolution of assemblies had not yet been taken.
The two other assemblies, Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, were dissolved by the PTI in January this year in an attempt to force the federal government to dissolve the National and two other provincial assemblies as, under the constitution, it is mandatory to hold polls within 90 days if an assembly is dissolved. However, it didn’t happen and the caretaker setups have continued to function even beyond 90-day period.
Since then, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has been vocal about leaving the government’s affairs to the caretaker setup in August 2023, strengthening the notion that there will be no extension in NA and other assemblies’ tenures.
The prime minister as well as the federal ministers, however, haven’t yet announced if the government would go for early dissolution of the assemblies or the assemblies would automatically dissolve on the completion of the term.
The ambiguity surrounding arose after it emerged that the dissolution of assemblies was likely a week before the government’s tenure ends. It was reported that the ruling parties had recently discussed this matter so that they could have more time for their election campaigns.
Under Article 224 of the Constitution, if any assembly is dissolved before the completion of its term then elections are held within 90 days. If the assembly is dissolved on the completion of its term, then the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has to conduct polls within a 60-day time.
