ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice on Wednesday approved an amendment to the Constitution to give women equal representation in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

At least two of the four ECP members will be female according to this amendment.

The Senate panel, which met under the chairmanship of Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, discussed some crucial constitutional amendments and finally approved the new composition of the commission.

The original proposal was to increase the strength of existing ECP from four to eight, with an equal representation of men and women.

However, it was decided by a majority vote that the total number of members shall remain four. After a thorough discussion, the senators agreed that women and men should have equal representation as members of the commission.

Approves proposal for reserved NA seat for women from capital

For this, the panel decided that each province would nominate alternately a man and a woman member so that at all times the commission has two men and two women members.

At the outset, the Senate committee chairman said he believed in the proverb “Women hold up half the sky” and suggested that there should be equal representation of women ultimately in all sectors of life.

Such a policy should be immediately implemented in at least those institutions where there is sufficient expertise of women, he added.

In another landmark decision for women, a majority of committee members agreed that there should be one seat reserved for women from Islamabad in National Assembly.

Barrister Zafar said seats were reserved for women of all the provinces in the parliament as per the constitution, but no seat was reserved for women to represent Islamabad in the assembly despite the fact that this was the need of the hour.

Keeping in view the constant struggle between the federation and the provinces, a bill had been moved by Senator Farooq H. Naek to increase the scope of the subjects, which fall within the concurrent list.

The Senate committee chairman explained it was necessary to harmonize the laws in various sectors such as family laws, arbitration, contract act, limitation and civil procedure code and accordingly these subjects may be included in the concurrent list as well so that both the federal legislature and the provincial legislature could make laws on it.

The committee voted upon this constitutional amendment and by a majority agreed to incorporate it.

High court benches

Also, another issue raised at the Senate committee meeting was about the permanent benches of high courts. It was informed that although provinces of Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh had permanent benches of high courts in various cities as specified in the constitution, there were no benches operating in Balochistan.

The committee chairman also sought input of the Pakistan Bar Council, Balochistan Bar Council, Quetta Bar Association and other bar representatives, who all were in attendance at the meeting.

He noted that since the benches in Balochistan had been specified in the constitution, it was the constitutional duty of the government and a matter of enforcement of fundamental rights that those benches be made operational.

While expressing serious concern over the issue, all members on the Senate panel agreed to request and write to the Chief Justice of Balochistan High Court as well as the governor and the chief minister

of the province in this regard and apprised them of the concerns of the Senate committee.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2022