ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser on Thursday wrote a letter to all parliamentary leaders in the Senate and National Assembly regarding the formation of a committee to oversee the issue of electoral reforms.
In the letter, Qaiser wrote that 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 parliamentary leaders in the Senate.
The letter further said that electoral reforms are "the need of the hour for transparent elections."
In the past, Qaiser wrote, there was a "market for buying and selling of votes, a practice which needs to be eradicated."
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 regarding the formation of a parliamentary committee for electoral reforms.
"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.
The premier also wrote that the treasury bench had submitted a bill for "meaningful electoral reforms to remove the prevailing stigma attached to our electoral process".
"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 said.
The premier said the task should be completed in a definitive time frame so that enough time is given to the relevant institution to bring reforms before the next general elections.