ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly on Thursday unanimously adopted the 22nd Constitutional Amendment Bill, 2016, enabling the retired civil servants and technocrats to be part of the Election Commission of Pakistan. Two hundred thirty-six members cast votes in favour of the bill and none opposed it. The bill moved by Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid envisages qualifications and procedure for appointment of chief election commissioner and members of the Election Commission of Pakistan. Currently only retired judges of Supreme Court or high court are eligible for appointment as chief election commissioner or members respectively. However, after the amendment in addition to retired judges, retired senior bureaucrats or senior civil servants and technocrats will also be eligible for appointment as CEC or member of the ECP. A senior civil servant means a civil servant who has served for at least 20 years under federal or a provincial government and has retired in BPS-22 or above. A person having 16 years of education and 20 years of experience would be called a technocrat. The law also fixes a maximum age limit of 68 years and 65 years for appointment as CEC and ECP members respectively. In order to give representation to all provinces, out of four members, one from each province will be appointed. Another important change relates to continuity of the commission, whereby instead of all four members retiring together, two of the members will retire every two-and-a-half years. For the first term, the commission will draw a lot as to which two members will retire after the first two-and-a-half years. Other amendments provide that delimitation of constituencies and preparation of electoral rolls for elections to local governments shall also be the responsibility of the ECP. The bill says in case no consensus is reached between prime minister and the leader of the opposition over appointment of the chief election commissioner, both of them will send separate lists to the parliamentary committee for consideration and the committee will approve any of those. The constitutional bill has amended articles 211, 213, 215, 217, 218, 219 and 222 of the constitution. Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Law and Justice Zahid Hamid congratulated the members for passing the bill unanimously. He said the prime minister had written a letter to National Assembly speaker to form a committee with consensus of all the political parties to prepare a comprehensive electoral package. He said the electoral reforms committee held 18 meetings while 57 meetings of the sub-committee were held in this regard. He said they received 1,200 proposals and reviewed all of them unanimously. The bill will now be tabled before the Senate.