The Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice has passed constitutional changes to grant equal representation to women in the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
The amendment requires that at least two out of four ECP members be women. The Standing Committee met under the chair of Barrister Syed Ali Zafar. It discussed various critical changes to the constitution and approved the new structure of the ECP.
Initially, Standing Committee planned to raise the number of ECP members from four to eight, with gender parity between men and women. However, the majority decided not to increase the number of members but to ensure gender parity in the same number of members.
Furthermore, the panel agreed that each province will nominate a man and a woman alternately. It also decided to reserve one seat for women from Islamabad’s constituency in the National Assembly.
In light of the above, Barrister Zafar remarked that women from other provinces have reserved seats in parliament, but none represented Islamabad.