ISLAMABAD: The Senate Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs chairman on Friday presented a report in Senate on a bill titled Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2016, seeking an amendment to the Representation of the People Act (RPA), 1976.
The bill was moved by Senator Sherry Rehman of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) on March 7.
Eariler, the bill was referred to the committee for consideration. The committee, in its meetings on March 17, May 2, July 26 and August 23, constituted a three-member sub-committee under the chairmanship of Senator Farooq H Naiq, for an in-depth consideration of the bill.
The sub-committee, in its meeting on September 19 at the Parliament House, proposed to delete clauses 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, while it was suggested that clause 9 of the bill, in the Representation of the People Act, 1976 (LXXXV of 1976) in Section 78, for sub-section (2), the following shall be substituted, namely, “(2) in the guilty of bribery, personation or under influence or prevents any women form contesting election or exercising her right to vote or enters into formal or informal agreement or understanding debarring women from becoming candidate’s for an election or exercising their right of vote in an election;.”
In Clause 10 of the bill, in the Representation of the People Act, 1976 (LXXXV of 1976) in Section 103AA, after sub-section (3), the following new sub-section shall be added, “(4) the exercise of powers conferred upon the Commission by sub-section (1), (2) and (3) above, appeal against any decision of the Commission shall lie to the Supreme Court, which shall be decided within thirty days.” “The Statement of Objects and Reasons” attached to the bill says that “there have been numerous reports at every election in recent years whereby women voters have been restrained from voting in the election as a result of an agreement or understanding between different persons which have included politicians, persons representing political parties, the clergy and leaders of the community.
“This process of systemically disqualifying women is a clear violation of their fundamental rights and amounts to an outright discrimination and negation of rights guaranteed under Article 25 of the Constitution. This bill seeks to address such barriers,” says the bill.
Moreover, “the bill seeks to make available gender disaggregated data, as not only an effective, transparent and clear method of documentation, but also as a tool to identify gender breakdown of voting structures and to identify and understand the number of women voting, the issues they face, how to eliminate them”.
“Given that consistent and regular data allows for effective monitoring of progress as regression, it is necessary that Pakistan ensures that this kind of data exists in Pakistan to enhance democratic structures and procedures,” it added.
