Elections are to be announced by the ECP.
The bill also caps the length of time someone can be disqualified at five years.
ISLAMABAD: On Friday, the Senate passed a measure giving the poll Commission of Pakistan (ECP) the authority to declare poll dates on its own without first consulting the president.
Shahadat Awan, the minister of state for law and justice, introduced the Elections (Amendment) Bill 2023 over opposition from PTI and Jamaat-i-Islami senators.
The Constitution establishes the ECP’s responsibility to organize and administer elections honestly, fairly, and in line with the law, according to the explanation of purposes and justifications of the legislation.
The provisions of the Constitution and the Election Act, 2017, which give the ECP administrative and functional autonomy, make it easier for the organization to carry out its primary responsibility of ensuring free and fair elections.
Sections 57(1) and 58(1) of the Election Act 2017 must be changed in order for the ECP to independently declare general election polling dates, the statement continued.
Section 57(1) of the amendments states that the commission must notify the official gazette of the date or dates of the general elections and must call for the election of representatives in each constituency.
Section 58: In spite of anything in Section 57, the commission may, at any time following the issuance of a notification under that section’s subsection (1), make any changes to the election schedule announced in that notification for the various stages of the election or may issue a new election schedule with new poll date(s) as may, in its judgment, be required for the purposes of this act.
The statement went on to say that the Senate chairman’s appointed parliamentary committee had also looked at the suggested revisions and had advised the federal government to begin the process of tabling the legislation.
Azam Nazir Tarar, a law minister, asserted that the ECP had been given the authority to select the election date in 1973. “But Ziaul Haq gave this right to the president through an amendment,” he said, stressing that the parliamentary committee had also given its approval to the statute.
Tarar continued, “The Constitution was superior.” The ECP’s role would become more active, he claimed, and the modifications would also allow for alterations to the election dates. He informed the chamber, “This amendment is being brought to remove all the ambiguities,” and that when the Constitution was silent, the Parliament may pass laws.
When expressing his opposition to the proposed law, Opposition Leader Shahzad Waseem said: “Legislation can only be done under the Constitution.” “The Constitution is very clear about the date of the elections and it gives both the president and the governor power to announce the date for polls,” he said.
Waseem claimed that “parliament is being bulldozed” and added that the governor and president are authorized by law to announce the election date. He continued by saying that “there is already a law in this regard,” adding that “it is not appropriate to give the ECP complete authority.”
It is important to remember that the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja’s proposed changes to the Elections Act were accepted by the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms in April.
The 2017 Election Act’s sections 57-1 and 58 had been amended, and the parliamentary committee had given its approval.
The previous version of Section 57-1 stated: “The President shall announce the date or dates of the general elections after consultation with the [Election] Commission [of Pakistan].”
However, this has been changed to allow the ECP to reveal the election date.
Section 58 used to read as follows: “The Commission may, at any time after the issue of the notification under sub-section (1) of that section [57-1], make such alterations in the Election Programme announced in that notification for the different stages of the election or may issue a fresh Election Programme as may, in its opinion to be recorded in writing, be necessary for the purposes of this Act: Provided that the Commission shall inform the President about any such alterations in the Election Programme announced in the notification for the different stages of the election.
The commission will no longer be required to notify the president of any changes to the election calendar as a result of the most recent reform, though.
“Limiting period of disqualification”
A change to Election Act of 2017 Section 232 (Qualifications and Disqualifications) was also included in the bill that was introduced in the Senate.
According to the clause, the measure caps the length of a person’s ban at five years.
Senators independent Senator Dilawar, Kahuda Babar, Danesh Kumar, and Ahmed Umer Ahmedzai offered the significant amendment to the Senate that dealt with disqualification under Article 62F of the Constitution.
Senator Dilawar asked the Senate to approve the bill today, claiming that prominent politicians Jahangir Khan Tareen and the nation’s three-time prime minister and leader of the Pakistan Mulsim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Nawaz Sharif, were victims of the law.
Future disqualifications could affect the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), he had stated.
