Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid on Wednesday accused Pakistan People's Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of backtracking from their stance to restore Articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution in their original form.
Hamid, who is the chairman of a sub-committee of Special Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms, told reporters after the meeting that both PPPP and PTI had proposed to restore Articles 62 and 63 in their original form but now they have changed their mind.
"It was their [PPP, and PTI] stance to restore Articles 62 and 63 in their original form but in today's meeting, the members of both the parties just changed their mind for reasons best known to them," he added. He said that the committee could not build consensus on the constitutional amendment as earlier all the parties had agreed to restore Articles 62 and 63 in their original form, which were amended during former military dictator Ziaul Haq's regime.
He said that the committee has agreed that the caretaker cabinet should be no more than 10 members. To a question about proposed ban on a candidate from contesting election from two different constituencies, he said that the committee could not build consensus on it as earlier there was a proposal that a candidate should be banned from contesting election from two different constituencies.
"A candidate can contest election from two constituencies at a time, and there will be no bar as it has been practiced in the past.
There was a proposal to abolish it through an amendment, but the parties did not agree to it," he added. He said that after disagreement in building a consensus on different issues, the committee will prepare the final draft, making recommendations on issues where the amendment is possible. State Minister for Information Technology Anusha Rehman Khan, who is a member of the panel, said the parliamentary committee will discuss the caretaker setup issue as there are some issues, which will be taken up in the next meeting.