The sub-committee of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms on Tuesday agreed with a proposal of Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to put the Returning Officers and other election staff under its (ECP) control during the next general elections. The sub-committee met here with its convenor Minister for Science and Technology Zahid Hamid in the chair to discuss the proposals for electoral reforms.

The committee also endorsed a proposal of ECP to empower the commission to take action against the electoral staff on misconduct and other charges. The committee also proposed to ban allotting political parties' electoral symbols to individual candidates in the next general election.

Earlier on Monday, the ECP informed the committee that in the absence of a permanent Chief Election Commissioner it cannot give a final opinion on whether or not the electronic voting machines (EVMs) should be used to make the electoral process transparent in future. The sub-committee will resume its meeting on Wednesday.

SOURCE: RECORDER REPORT