ISLAMABAD: The government and the opposition agreed on Thursday to one-third representation for the Senate in the proposed 33-member special parliamentary committee on electoral reforms.

The issue of representation of members of both houses of parliament was resolved in a meeting between the representatives of the government and the opposition, also attended by National Assembly Speaker Sadder Ayaz Sadiq and Senate Chairman Nayyar Bokhari.

Talking to reporters after the meeting, the speaker said he would constitute the committee in two to three days after obtaining nominations from political parties.

He said it had been agreed by both sides that the committee would have one-third representation from the Senate and two-thirds from the National Assembly. It means that the panel will comprise 22 MNAs and 11 Senators.

He said the government and the opposition had agreed to provide the names of their representatives as soon as possible.

The parliamentary leaders of opposition and government-allied parties in a meeting on June 20 had agreed that the committee would comprise 33 members on the basis of the parties’ strength in both the houses.

According to the formula, the ruling PML-N will have seven seats in the committee, followed by the PPP with four.

But, the meeting had not reached any understanding on the formula to decide representation of the National Assembly and the Senate, forcing the speaker to delay the notification of the committee.

In a move apparently to pacify the agitating Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf which is demanding election reforms, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif wrote to the NA Speaker on June 10, asking him to constitute a special parliamentary committee comprising members of both houses to take up the issue.

Mr Sharif suggested that the proposed committee should present strong recommendations on the ways to ensure free and fair elections, establishment of caretaker government and use of modern technology in polls.

After announcement by the speaker during the budget session, most of major political parties, including PTI, had finalised names of their members for the proposed committee.

It is expected that the parties may now revise the names after finalisation of the formula.

The PPP had nominated Senators Chaudhry Aitzaz Ahsan, Mian Raza Rabbani, Syed Naveed Qamar and Shazia Marri and the ruling PML-N National Assembly’s Deputy Speaker Murtaza Javed Abbasi, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Science and Technology Minister Zahid Hamid, Minister for Safron Abdul Qadir Baloch, Minister of State for Information Technology Anusha Rehman and MNAs Hakeem Baloch and Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry.

The PTI had nominated Shireen Mazari, Shafqat Mehmood and Arif Alvi.

The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (Fazl) had nominated Senator Talha Mehmood and MNA Naeema Kishwar.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2014