ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, unanimously, passed “The Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2023,” a private member’s bill to eliminate the words Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) and where mentioned in the Election Act 2017 as Fata stood merged with Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province.
The committee met with Senator Taj Haider in the chair at the Parliament house Friday.
The committee discussed, “The Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2023”, Public Sector Development Program (PSDP) for the year 2023-24 and upcoming elections in the country.
According to the objects and reasons of “The Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2023”, after the enactment of the Constitution (Twenty-fifth Amendment) Act 2018, the erstwhile Fata stood merged with the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. So, a need was felt to amend various laws for the purpose of clarity and precision, in line with this Constitutional Amendment Act. However, since then, no changes have been made in the Elections Act 2017 for omission of words “Federally Administrated Tribal Areas” wherever written, from the text of the said Act.
The committee was informed that the amendment was necessary in light of the 25th constitutional amendment and the merger of Fata in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. The bill was supported by both the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) and the government.
The committee was also informed that the proposal for amendments in Election Act, 2017 is under process, and that it would be appropriate if consolidated amendments may be made in the Election Act, 2017 through the government bill. The committee decided that despite the government bill being under process, it would be appropriate that this bill be passed immediately.
While taking up the matter of any proposed recommendations related to the PSDP for the year 2023-24, the committee was informed that no PSDP project were proposed.
According to the rules of the business there is no function that can be made part of the PSDP.
The committee recommended that the ministry must consider including projects that would entail a reference library for Parliamentarians with a research cell that would help provide support regarding House Business. The committee recommended that a comparative study must be conducted to review such facilities in parliaments internationally so that the best version is adopted in Pakistan.
In addition to the above-mentioned agenda, the committee also discussed upcoming elections and directed the ECP to make a presentation regarding election preparedness in the next meeting.
The committee stressed the need to highlight bottlenecks so that it could make recommendations in order to resolve issues. Matters related to the local body elections in Sindh were also discussed at length.
The meeting was attended by senators, Abida Muhammad Azeem, Kamran Murtaza, and Syed Waqar Mehdi, and senior officers of the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs along with its attached departments and agencies.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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