The in-camera meeting of a parliamentary committee which was supposed to be held today (Tuesday) to appoint two members of the Election Commission of Pakistan has been postponed for the second time as the committee has shown signs of fissures on the grounds of unequal representation by the opposition, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Reportedly, an important meeting of the parliamentary committee which was summoned today to appoint two members of the election commission has been postponed on the complaint of the opposition members who claimed to be underrepresented in the committee. 

Sources informed that the committee sought extra time for the mutual consultation and the next session would be held on Nov 12 which would appoint the ECP members.

It has been learnt that the government wanted to hold a conference with the opposition in three days. 

The opposition was of the view that if there was no equal representation then it would be tantamount to imposing other party’s decision. 

Sources divulged that despite secret contacts, the matter was not resolved and today’s in-camera session of the committee was cancelled. 

In the parliamentary committee composition, 7 members of the government were included and the number of opposition members was six. 

The opposition insisted that the representation be equal i.e. 6 from each side. 

The session was called to appoint two members of the ECP from Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. But, before the session, the members of the parliamentary committee were reshuffled. 

Senator Khalida Ateeb, Senator Kamil Ali Agha, Senator Tahir Bizenjo and Senator Hadayat Ullah were included in the parliamentary committee. 

Defence Minister Pervaiz Khattak, Education Minister Shafqat Mehmood and Minister for Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar were also to participate in the in-camera session. Besides them, the opposition leaders including Rana Sana Ullah, Shiza Fatima Khwaja, Raja Pervez Ashraf and Shahida Akhtar Ali were to take part in the session. 

It is pertinent to mention here that the Punjab and KP members of the ECP after completing their tenures were retired on July 25, 2021. 

From Punjab, Prime Minister Imran Khan suggested names of Ahsan Mehboob, Advocate Raja Amir Khan and Dr Syed Pervaiz Abbas. 

From KP, the premier floated the names of Justice ® Ikram Ullah Khan, Farid Ullah and Muzammil Khan. 

Opposition leader in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif suggested six names from Punjab. He recommended the names of Justice ® Tariq Iftikhar, Justice ®Mushtaq Ahmad, Khalid Masood Chaudhry, Irfan Qadir, Muhammad Javed Anwar and Irfan Ali. 

From KP, Shehbaz suggested names of Syed Afsar shah, Safdar Hussain Shah and Suhail Altaf.

Reporter Usman Khan