ISLAMABAD: The subcommittee of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms (PCER) on Monday failed to fix a limit of expenditure on election campaign by political parties.

An in-camera meeting of the subcommittee was held at the Parliament House with Law Minister Zahid Hamid in the chair.

Mr Hamid told reporters that there was a proposal to fix Rs200 million as the maximum limit of expenditure on election campaigns by political parties but consensus could not be reached.

“So, matter related to election campaigns by political parties has been referred to the main committee. However, consultation on 630 proposals, given by the civil society and parliamentarians, has been completed,” he added.

He said that during the next three days the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the Ministry of Law would discuss rules of the Election Act, 2017.

Minister says consensus on proposal to fix Rs200m limit could not be developed

He said that consensus could not be developed regarding visits of senators and members of the National Assembly during by-elections in constituencies.

“All political parties were ready to allow parliamentarians to visit constituencies during campaigns for by-elections, but the ECP did not agree on it,” Mr Hamid said.

It is pertinent to mention here that the PCER and its subcommittee, formed by the National Assembly speaker in 2014, have already held over 100 meetings, but some issues such as the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs), biometric verification machines (BVMs) and the right of vote to overseas Pakistanis are still lingering.

In the current month, the ECP through a letter to the speaker had warned that time was running out for the enactment of electoral reforms if the political parties wanted the next general elections to be held under the proposed laws. The ECP had asked the speaker to direct the PCER “to finalise its recommendations and lay the bill before the parliament for making necessary legislation and enact the Election Act 2017 as early as possible so that the ECP could start and complete its work in time according to the new law”.

The draft of the Election Law 2017 had been presented by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar as the head of the parliamentary committee through an interim report on Dec 20 last year, in both houses of parliament.

Presenting the report, the minister had stated that the committee had decided to seek feedback from all stakeholders, including parliamentarians, within 30 days after which the committee would prepare a final draft.

The special parliamentary committee had been constituted by Speaker Ayaz Sadiq on July 25, 2014, with the task “to make recommendations to hold free, fair and transparent elections” in future. The committee was required to complete its job by Oct 23, 2014.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2017