ISLAMABAD: Members of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms questioned on Monday the legal status of the panel and said that a joint committee could only be formed at a joint session of parliament.

A participant of the meeting told Dawn that Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan of the PPP had raised the issue at the outset of the proceedings.

Barrister Ahsan asked under which parent law or article of constitution the committee had been formed and what would be the source of its authority.

Finance Minister Muhammad Ishaq Dar, who heads the committee, defended its formation and said it had been formed under Rule 244-B. When Mr Ahsan pointed out that Rule 244-B was part of the rules of procedure and business of the National Assembly, Mr Dar insisted that it had become a precedence to constitute committees in that manner and said that Speakers of the National Assembly had constituted joint parliamentary committees several times in the past.

“Do you want to say that the formation of parliamentary committee on national security was wrong,” he asked and said that the committee headed by Mian Raza Rabbani had been constituted in the same fashion.

Mr Dar earlier proposed that the committee berenamed as parliamentary committee on electoral reforms, a proposal not opposed by any member. It was decided that a note would be sent to the Speaker of the National Assembly for issuing another notification.

The committee decided to examine the reforms proposed by parliamentary committees in the past as well as the draft electoral law prepared by the Election Commission of Pakistan. It was decided that sections concerned, including the ECP and the National Database Registration Authority (Nadra), would be consulted and public hearings would be organised to solicit views of the people.

Later, Mr Ishaq Dar told reporters that the committee would also point out shortcomings in the 2013 general elections with a view to plugging any loophole and making the electoral legal framework more efficient.

Answering a question, he said that meetings of the committee and the upcoming long march were two separate things, adding that the march was expected to take place on Aug 14, a public holiday, and would thus not affect proceedings of the committee.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2014