ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser has penned down a letter to all parliamentary leaders in the Senate and National Assembly regarding the formation of an electoral reforms committee.
In the letter, Qaiser wrote that electoral reforms were the need of the hour for transparent elections. “There was a market for buying and selling of votes, a practice which needs to be eradicated,” he wrote.
The NAP speaker wrote that all representatives of all parties would be included in the committee, adding that a notification regarding the formation of the Electoral Reforms Committee would be issued after the nomination of leaders.
The NA speaker also said that parliamentary democracy should be strengthened by eliminating corrupt practices, for which the introduction of electoral reforms is necessary before the next elections.
A day earlier, Prime Minister Imran Khan had written a letter to the NA Speaker in this regard. “The recent Senate elections have highlighted once again the scourge of vote purchasing in the prevailing non-transparent manner of conducting elections,” the premier said in the letter.
“I would request you to immediately form an inter-party parliamentary committee to discuss these reforms and come to an agreement on how to introduce best practices including the use of technology and introduction of EVMs (electronic voting machines) to strengthen our electoral system and democracy,” he wrote.
