ISLAMABAD: The special parliamentary committee on electoral reforms completed half of its lifetime on Monday without any significant progress, mainly owing to the prevailing political situation.

The 33-member committee formed by National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on July 25 is required to complete its task within 90 days, or by Oct 23. But it has so far been able only to prepare its rules of business and terms of reference, besides electing Finance Minister Ishaq Dar as its chairman.

The committee members were to receive a briefing on Sept 2 from officials of various institutions and departments responsible for conducting elections in the country, but it could not meet due to sit-ins held by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) in Islamabad’s red zone.

Mr Dar told Dawn that the committee could not meet on Sept 2 due to the blockade of the Pakistan Secretariat buildings by the protesters and, therefore, a briefing by the departments was not possible. He said now he had planned to convene the meeting this week as the secretariat had started functioning on Monday.

The 33-member panel formed by National Assembly Speaker on July 25 is required to complete its task by Oct 23

The committee has been tasked “to evaluate the shortcomings of the previous electoral process and make recommendations to hold free, fair and transparent elections” in future.

It has representives of almost all political parties in the National Assembly and Senate and its meetings were also attended by PTI leaders Dr Arif Alvi, Shafqat Mehmood and Shireen Mazari.

When contacted, Mr Alvi criticised the government and said it was not convening the meeting possibly because of the ongoing sit-in, believing that the PTI members might not attend it.

He said the PTI had already submitted its proposals in writing to the committee. Therefore, he said, Mr Dar should hold the meetings regularly even if the PTI members did not attend.

Mr Alvi, who represents his party in the ongoing talks with the government on ways of ending the current impasse, said there had been no understanding between the government and his party about the issue of convening the committee’s meetings.

Another member of the committee, Raza Rabbani of the PPP, told Dawn that it appeared that Mr Dar had been unable to convene the meeting because he headed the government team holding talks with the PTI.

Moreover, he said, he believed that holding the meeting without PTI’s participation could prove to be an exercise in futility because the party might not accept its recommendations.

When asked if the committee would be able to complete its task by Oct 23, he said, timing was not an issue because under the rules the committee members could seek extension from parliament.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2014