ISLAMABAD: A Senate committee approved on Wednesday with amendments two election-related bills already passed by the National Assembly.

Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs which met here with Senator Saeed Ghani in the chair passed the Electoral Rolls (Amendment) Bill and Delimitation of Constituencies (Amendment) Bill with some changes.

The committee is required to submit its reports to Senate by March 1 on two bills referred to it.

After the passage of the amended bills by Senate, the bills will now be sent to the National Assembly for approval in the amended form.

The committee omitted clause 4-B from the electoral rolls bill which proposed to empower the commission to authorise one or more of its members, acting alone or together, to exercise and perform all or any of its powers and functions under the bill, observing that it was inappropriate to authorise a single person to perform functions of the commission which comprises chief election commissioner and four members.

The committee amended clause 12 of delimitation of constituencies proposing to empower the ECP to make rules to carry out purposes of the bill, making it conditional with the President’s approval and notification.

During the course of the meeting, former law minister and Senate chairman Farooq H. Naek called for amendment in the law governing allocation of election symbols to political parties to ensure that a symbol once allocated to a political party is not given to some other party in future without the political party’s written permission.

When Additional Secretary of ECP Fida Muhammad Khan said it was so and referred to section 9 of Representation of Peoples (conduct of elections) Rules, 1977, Mr Naek said that word might have been used in the law which left at its discretion to allot any symbol to any political party or candidate.

“I have no doubts on the intent of the ECP but the law should be very clear,” he said.

The proposal was also endorsed by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Sheikh Aftab Ahmad.

Committee chairman Saeed Ghani expressed concern over allocation of symbols to PPP candidates in the upcoming phase of local government elections on reserved seats which were otherwise meant for independent candidates. Citing an example, he said that a PPP candidate had been allotted the symbol of bottle instead of arrow.

He said that the ECP had informed about its decision to allot independent symbols to candidates of political parties. He said this would create confusion about the otherwise party-based polls, adding that the number of candidates in each constituency was going to be around 70 while the total number of symbols for independent candidates was 45.

“How would you manage to implement the decision which was not only against the law but against the judgment of the Supreme Court as well,” he asked.

He was of the view that the ECP, being a constitutional body, should not do anything unconstitutional even if so was desired by courts. On another occasion he noted that the ECP should stop working on the basis of assumptions about a possible verdict by courts.

“What courts are going to announce tomorrow is not your problem. You have to act in accordance with the existing law. You should keep in view your constitutional mandate and rights of the provinces,” Mr Ghani said.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2016