April 23, 2008	Wednesday	Rabi-us-Sani 16, 1429

ISLAMABAD, April 22: The Election Commission has set up a committee to propose reforms in the electoral system.

The committee, constituted by Chief Election Commissioner Justice (retd) Qazi Mohammad Farooq, is headed by Kanwar Mohammad Dilshad, the commission’s secretary, and includes the election commissioner of Sindh, joint secretaries for elections, administration and local government elections and director-general of information technology.

Kanwar Dilshad said that the Electoral Reforms Committee had been asked to suggest appropriate amendments to electoral laws and processes.

Mr Dilshad said the committee would study the electoral process to make it more transparent and credible, in compliance with international standards.

The European Union Election Observation Mission’s in its report had observed that there were serious problems with the framework and conditions in which the Feb 18 polls were held, and said that the overall process had fallen short of a number of international standards for genuine democratic elections.