ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) has proposed a financially and administratively independent election commission so that the next general elections can be held in a better and more transparent way.

Besides contesting the Panamagate case in the Supreme Court, the party has started preparing an electoral reforms package which is likely to be made public in 20 days.

“The PTI demands complete financial and administrative autonomy of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) so that it can shed any influence of the government,” PTI spokesman Fawwad Chaudhry told Dawn after a meeting of the party’s electoral reforms committee on Monday.

The meeting was presided over by PTI secretary general Jehangir Tareen.

Mr Chaudhry said that his party demanded that the ECP’s budget should be a one-line budget on the pattern of the Supreme Court.

“The party believes that the commission cannot work independently unless it is awarded complete financial independence,” he added.

Similarly, he said, the rules of the ECP should not be made by the government. Instead, the commission should have complete administrative autonomy so that it can formulate its own rules and procedures.

The party is preparing an electoral reforms package which is likely to be made public in 20 days

The spokesman said that the committee observed that the government was creating hurdles in the way of biometric and electronic voting.

“This is despite the fact that required resources and facilities are available to hold next general elections under biometric and electronic voting systems. It will be one of the major steps to curb rigging during the polls,” he added.

The meeting called for allowing overseas Pakistanis to cast their votes in the next elections, he said.

“More than seven million overseas Pakistanis, who hold National Identity Card for Overseas Pakistanis, should not be deprived of their right of franchise,” he added.

Mr Chaudhry said that the committee could not reach consensus on proposals about election on the seats reserved for women and election for the Senate.

The committee could not decide whether the existing system of indirect election of women should continue or not, he added.

“Some members of the committee were of the view that there should be direct election on the seats reserved for women and women voters should have the right of double vote to enable them to elect their representatives,” the spokesman said.

He said that the committee stressed the need for representation of women in parliament not only from urban areas but also from rural areas.

It was proposed in the meeting that there should be direct election for the Senate on the pattern of such polls in the United States.

The committee formed three sub-committees. One of them — headed by Shafqat Mehmood, with Arif Alvi, Asad Umar, Fawwad Chaudry and Shireen Mazari as its members — will work on electoral reforms package.

The second sub-committee, headed by Ghulam Sarwar Khan, will look into ground realities and delimitations, and the third, comprising Arif Alvi and Shiblee Faraz, will work on electronic voting.

Jehangir Tareen alleged that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz wanted to prolong its rule through poll rigging and taking advantage of bottlenecks in the electoral system.

“But we will not allow any ball tempering and getting favours from the umpire in the next elections,” he said.

Published in Dawn February 7th, 2017