June 02, 2007	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 16, 1428

ISLAMABAD, June 1: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs on Friday recommended to the government to reserve seats for women from the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas in the lower house of parliament before the next general elections.

Talking to Dawn after a meeting of the committee, its chairman Riaz Fatyana said that all members of the committee were unanimous in demanding reserved seats for Fata women in the National Assembly.

Mr Fatyana said the Constitution needed to be amended for the purpose.

He said the committee had recommended to Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to take steps for introducing the amendment.

Mr Fatyana said the meeting of the committee had been convened to discuss the Delimitation of Constituencies (Amendment) Bill 2007 and budget proposals.

Replying to a question, he said there should be at least two reserved seats for women from Fata.

An official of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) informed the committee that there would be no changes in the present composition of constituencies for the next general elections. He said that the number of reserved seats for women would also remain the same.

Mr Fatyana said as the previous elections were held under the Legal Framework Order (LFO), the National Assembly was required to pass the Delimitation of Constituencies (Amendment) Bill before the elections.

He said the committee also examined expenditures of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs for the past six months.

The meeting was attended by Hamid Nasir Chattha, Munir Khan Orakzai, Pir Mohammad Aslam Bodla, Nawab Mirza, Maulana Asadullah, Sayeda Farhana Khalid, Imtiaz Safdar Warraich, Nafeesa Munawar Raja and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Dr Sher Afgan Khan Niazi.