Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs said that the committee for electoral reforms would try to get the amendments in the Election Act, 2017 passed from the National Assembly and Senate before government’s tenure comes to end.

“Work has been done in this regard in the past by different committees which gave several recommendations. We have compiled all those recommendations including those of the Election Commission in a bid to make it a consensus document and provide a level-playing field,” he said while speaking with Asma Shirazi on Aaj News show Faisla Aap Ka.

Sadiq, who is the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee for Electoral Reforms, said that the Presiding Officer will send the result electronically to the Returning Officer and the Election Commission of Pakistan while he will also physically submit the election result to make the process transparent.

He said that the submission of the result will not be allowed to be delayed beyond 2am. “If they are late than the stated time, they will need to provide valid reason for it.”

“We have also addressed the issues of officers from far-flung areas as they may face difficulty in reaching on-time. They may be given an extra 8 or 10 hours but that too is subjected to valid reasons,” he added.

While responding to a question regarding the PTI’s participation in the electoral reforms, he said that the PTI members who were in the Parliament took part in the committee’s proceedings.

“I do not understand why someone will contest elections if they would later resign from the parliament. It means that they are depriving their constituency for their own wishes. If they [PTI] had been in the parliament it would be better but we cannot go to them,” Sadiq added.