The National Assembly Standing Committee on Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs on Wednesday proposed enhanced security fee for contesting election of National Assembly from Rs 4000 to Rs 50,000 and for Provincial Assembly from 2,000 to Rs 25,000 with the objective to discourage the dummy candidates.
The meeting of the committee presided over by Member National Assembly Abdul Ghafoor Chaudhry held detailed discussions on the report submitted by the sub-committee of the House Committee on Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs about amendments to the electoral laws.
The members of the committee also discussed the proposal to involve judiciary to ensure free and fair elections as administration has become partisan and representative of political parties. The majority of the committee members viewpoint was that very nominal security fee for contesting election was one of the reasons for fielding dummy candidates by the contestants to divide the opponent's vote bank. The increase in security fee, the members of the committee said would discourage this trend.
The committee recommended that the security fee would be deposited in cash by the candidate or by any person on his behalf to the returning officer at the time of delivery of nomination papers. The committee also recommended that the security fee received from the candidate would be forfeited in case he was not able to receive one fourth of the total polled votes in the constituency.
The parliamentary committee on law and justice also discussed an amendment proposed to be made in the Constitution to make obligatory on the defence ministry for taking prior approval from the Parliament before singing any treaty or agreement about the country's defence.
The representative of the defence ministry said that any such condition would bring the working of defence to standstill and it was not required because the ministry of defence was following the laid down 1973 Rules of Business. He said the current procedure for the approval of defence-related agreements was fair enough.
After opposition by the committee members, MNA Naseer Bhutta withdrew the bill, seeking to declare the kidnapping for ransom as compoundable offence because some time innocent people also become victims in such cases due to improper investigation.
He withdrew his bill saying he would resubmit to the committee with some amendments after the members said that kidnapping for ransom was heinous crime and it was up to them to decide about the innocent and culprits and if there was any drawback in investigation that is required to be plugged instead of a new law.