PR No. 128 ELECTORAL REFORMS Islamabad, April 13, 2017 .

Finance Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar said here Thursday that Electoral Reforms package would be ready before the budget and added that a bill for enactment of the law shall be tabled in the Parliament soon.

The Finance Minister was talking to media after chairing the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms.

Giving details of the proceedings, the Minister said that the committee held its 21st meeting today and overall 102 meetings of both the main committee and the sub-committee have taken place. He said the committee today discussed the additional proposals that have been received since submission of its 2nd interim report on electoral reforms to the Senate and National Assembly in December 2016. He informed that 631 new proposals have been received and the Committee would consider them all. He said convener Mr. Zahid Hamid has done a lot of hard work on browsing the long list of proposals and having detailed consultations with members of the committee.

The Minister said that the Sub-committee from now would meet on daily basis to achieve maximum progress. He said it is our endeavour to consolidate nine different election laws into one law and it is after forty years that efforts are on for reforms. He added that the sub-committee has already met thrice during this week and it is our resolve to place the bill on electoral reforms before the parliament as early as possible. He said that the work on electoral reforms lay pending for a long time as from January onwards we were totally focused on legislation regarding the military courts. Now we intend to complete the necessary work on electoral reforms on a fast pace, the Finance Minister said.

The Minister said that the matter regarding electronic voting and biometrics is also being looked into by a sub-committee headed by Mr. Arif Alvi, MNA. He said all political parties are jointly working on this national objective of consolidation of different laws into one composite law.

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