ISLAMABAD: The impending caretaker set-up was given an extraordinary mandate to negotiate huge economic and political landscapes on Wednesday when the joint sitting of parliament performed a breathtaking exhibition of legislative acrobatics by delineating the lines of political authority.
The government, a day after being embarrassed by the election bill, won over its supporters and got their approval for expanding the caretaker government’s authority by changing Section 230 of the Elections Act of 2017.
The amended Section 230 read as follows: “Provided that sub-sections (1) and (2) shall not apply where the caretaker government is required to act or make decisions with respect to existing bilateral or multilateral agreements or the projects already initiated under the Public Private Partnership Authority Act, 2017 (VIII of 2017), the Inter-Governmental Commercial Transactions Act, 2022 (XXX of 2022), and the Privatisation Commission Ordinance, 2000 (LII of 2000).”
Joint Session of Parliament approves “The Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2023” pic.twitter.com/Rvoygf0OuE
July 26, 2023 — National Assembly (@NAofPakistan)
The caretaker set-up was supposed to bridge the gap until an elected government assumed power after the general elections, but parliament has opened the door for it to wield significant economic authority during its brief three-month tenure.
On Tuesday, Section 230 was amended to read that the subsections shall not apply whenever circumstances exist that make it expedient for the caretaker government to take such actions or decisions as are necessary to protect the economic interests of Pakistan in dealing with bilateral and multilateral agreements with international institutions and foreign governments.
Despite protests from the PTI, JI legislators, and Raza Rabbani of the PPP, the joint session passed more than four-hundred changes to the Elections Act of 2017. Surprisingly, after fiercely opposing it as the opposition in the Senate, the ruling coalition has now adopted a law from the PTI era pertaining to election reforms and made adjustments to it.
The government’s main aim, ironically, was to go for electoral reforms and hold elections after it came to power through a motion of no confidence that ousted Imran Khan as prime minister.
However, the plan was altered and changes to the election law were implemented just weeks before the government’s five-year tenure ended.
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The Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms convened at parliament on Tuesday to address the concerns of the allies on Section 230, who had argued that the controversial change was never mentioned in the in-camera committee meetings preceding Wednesday’s adoption of the bill by the joint session.
The government passed the measure giving the caretaker set up extraordinary powers after convincing the allies but failing to win over the PTI.
During the meeting, government ministers who were on the committee outlined how their concerns had been heard and incorporated into the plan, meaning that the caretaker administration wouldn’t be able to sign any new contracts or initiate any new programmes or projects.
The revisions to Section 230, as explained by Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar, are meant to prevent a pause in the implementation of federal cabinet decisions that have already been made, and not to grant the caretaker administration any additional powers.
Irregular and contrary to the law
Barrister Ali Zafar, a senator for the PTI, said that the modification was unconstitutional and illegal. “If parliament doesn’t reject it today, the Supreme Court will strike it down in the next few days,” he said.
PPP member Taj Haider told The Express Tribune that after discussing the single point agenda of amendment in Section 230, the electoral reforms committee decided the amendment should be reworded so that the caretaker set-up’s powers are limited rather than giving it a mandate to start new initiatives, projects, or agreements.
The legislation mandates, among other things, that political parties actively recruit women, people with disabilities, and transgender people.
A show-cause notice and subsequent Rs200,000 punishment would be issued if intraparty elections were not held.
When carrying out delimitation, it shall not be essential to exactly conform to the existing district boundaries, as stated in a revised Section 20 (3) (principles of delimitation).
For the purposes of the amendment to Section 83, the following new proviso shall be added to Section 83(4): “provided that officials of the law enforcement agencies shall be posted for security duties outside the polling station, but in the event of an emergency, may be called inside by the Presiding Officer to restore order and peaceful polling.”
Parliament has ruled, via an amendment to Section 148 (5) (procedure before Election Tribunal for trial of petitions), that the Election Tribunal shall proceed with the trial of the election petition on a day-to-day basis if the parties do not consent to specific dates under subsection 4, and that no adjournment shall be granted to any party for more than seven days and that too on payment of Rs180,000, and that the election petition shall be decided within 180 days of its filing.
In addition, the costs of subsequent adjournments are highlighted.
In addition, Section 155 has been updated to state that appeals must be settled within 180 days, with an injunction order being immediately annulled if the high court or Supreme Court does not rule on the appeal within that time frame.
Changes have been made to the statement of purpose and rationale.
Transparent Senate elections free of historical manipulations and voting rights for overseas Pakistanis are long-standing demands of practically all political parties, including the PTI, as expressed in a law drafted during the PTI administration.
These clauses were left out of the recently enacted bill.
The PTI bill and the PTI report share the same sentence, minus the dates, about the federal cabinet forming a cabinet committee on January 28, 2020, to make recommendations on electoral reforms to ensure transparent, free, and fair elections in the country.
Both bills say that the cabinet adopted a package of electoral reforms including the Constitution (Twenty-Sixth Amendment) Bill, 2020 and the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2020 based on the committee’s recommendations.
The PTI bill, which was passed by the National Assembly but not the Senate, stated, “These bills broadly cover the Senate elections, women and minority reserved seats, delimitation of constituencies on the basis of enrolled voters instead of population, voting rights to overseas Pakistanis, and conditional participation of dual nationals in elections.”
According to the recently enacted legislation, these proposals extensively encompassed Senate elections; reserved seats for women, transgender people, and minorities; seat delimitations; and constituencies based on voter registration rather than population.
The newly enacted legislation also notes that the National Assembly adopted a move to appoint a parliamentary committee on election reforms on April 16, 2022.
At its meetings on July 11, 12, 13, 17, and 18, 2023, the committee carefully considered the amendments proposed by the Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs of the National Assembly, the Senate, other political parties, and the Election Commission of Pakistan, and unanimously approved them so that elections in Pakistan would be open, free, and fair.
