ISLAMABAD: Following the intervention of National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) on Monday ended its boycott of the electoral reforms committee which met under the chairmanship of Law Minister Zahid Hamid.

The ECP officials attended the meeting after the speaker talked to its secretary Babar Yaqub Fateh Mohammad and requested him to participate in `the larger national interest` According to a handout issued by the National Assembly Secretariat, the secretary told the speaker that since the ECP was a constitutional body, its officials must be given due respect and the lawmakers should refrain from `baseless allegations` He said the ECP officials had great respect for the parliamentarians and expected that this would be reciprocated. The secretary assured the speaker that he would himself attend the meeting with other officials and that the commission would extend fullcooperationincarrying out the process of electoral reforms.

The committee had not met since March 2 when the secretary and other officials of the ECP had walked out of the meeting after PTI lawmaker Shireen Mazari accused the commission of preparing to rig the 2018 general elections while questioning `replacement` of provincial election commissioners.

Later, Chief Election Commissioner retired Justice Sardar Mohammad Raza wrote a letter to the speaker to convey the ECP`s decision to completely boycott the proceedings of the committee and seek action against PTI legislators who, in his view, had violated the rules of procedure of the committee and principle of confidentiality.

Last week, the ECP through another letter to the speal(er had warned that time was running out for the enactment of electoral reforms, if political parties wanted the next elections to be held under the proposed laws. The ECP had asked the speaker to direct the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms (PCER) `to finalise its recommendations and lay the bill before parliament for making necessary legislation and enact the Election Act 2017 as early as possible so that the ECP could start and complete its work in time according to the new law` Meanwhile, the committee continued deliberations on the draft of theElection Law 2017 presented by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, who heads the parliamentary committee, as an interim report on Dec 20 last year before both houses of parliament.

Tall(ing to reporters after the in-camera meeting of the subcommittee of the PCER, the law minister expressed the hope that the committee would complete its task by Wednesday (tomorrow). He said the committee had decided to bind the ECP to carry out delimitation of constituencies at least six months before the holding of elections.

At present no such limit is provided in the Constitution.

Mr Hamid said the decision to increase the number of seats of the National Assembly would be taken after completion of the ongoing census. He said that under the proposed draft law, the ECP would be bound to submit its performance report to parliament every year, besides putting it on its official website.

In reply to a question, he said the decision regarding the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in the next elections depended on the success of the pilot project.

When the law minister expressed the hope that the committee would complete its job in the next two days, PPP parliamentary leader Sye d Naveed Qamar said he personally believed that they would not be able to give a final shape to the draft because it required a lot of improvement.

He said his party was planning togive some more recommendations in writing to the committee with a view to improving the legislation and making the ECP an independent and powerful institution.

Mr Qamar said there were still some contentious matters which needed to be resolved. Elaborating some of the issues, he said some parties had objections to the provision under which the ECP could declare the election null and void in any constituency where women`s turnout would be less than 10 per cent.

Answering a question, the PPP leader said all the parties wanted to see the use of EVMs and biometric verification machines in the next elections, but it seemed unlikely that they would be able to do it.

The committee will meet again on Tuesday (today).

Meanwhile, talking to reporters after attending a ceremony to mark Constitution Day, the National Assembly speaker justified the ECP`s act of announcing boycott of the committee, saying that whatever the lawmakers had done with the commission`s officials was wrong. He, however, said the ECP officials had agreed to end the boycott considering the electoral reforms process a national duty.

In reply to question about the decision of the former army chief Gen Raheel Sharif to head the Saudi-led military alliance, the speaker said the issue did not fall within parliament`s purview.