Major Amendments to the Elections Act are Passed by the NA
Limits a lawmaker’s exclusion period to five years and gives the ECP authority to declare election dates.
A bill to shorten the length of a lawmaker’s disqualification to five years and give the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) the authority to choose election dates without consulting the president was passed by the National Assembly on Sunday in ISLAMABAD.
The Senate has already approved the measure. It would go to the president for approval after passing the National Assembly.
It is expected that interim President Sadiq Sanjrani will sign it without further delay in President Arif Alvi’s absence.
Former three-time prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) member Quaid Nawaz Sharif and Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) leader Jahangir Tareen will benefit immediately from the bill’s passage into law.
As a part of the supplementary agenda, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar introduced the Elections Act (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which was adopted by the National Assembly.
The authority of the president to declare the date of the election has been removed and handed to the ECP following the change to Section 57 of the Elections Act.
The ECP need no longer have the president’s approval before announcing the date of the elections.
With the new language in Section 58 of the Elections Act, the ECP would be able to issue and alter the election calendar as needed. The disqualification of a lawmaker is addressed in Section 232 of the Elections Act, which is also amended by the bill.
The measure specifies that a disqualifying sentence for the offence, which is not set in stone by the Constitution, shall not exceed five years. A key component of the measure said, “Where no period is prescribed in the Constitution, the provisions of this bill will apply.”
A person who has been found guilty by a judgement, order, or decree of the Supreme Court, high court, or any other court will be barred from holding public office for five years from the date on which the judgement was announced under this measure.
Article 62(F) of the Constitution provides for a period of disqualification, however this law limits that time to a maximum of five years. After that time, the individual is stated to be qualified for election to either federal or provincial office.
Nawaz and Tareen stand to gain the most from the new law. The Supreme Court permanently barred both of them from practising law. The two party leaders were booted out of their positions after they were disqualified.
Defence Minister Khawaja Asif afterwards went on private TV to say that the ECP is free to organise elections in October. “Parliament has given permission to the ECP to conduct general elections as per schedule,” he declared.
He claimed that budgetary provisions had been made to ensure that the elections would be conducted fairly and openly. A lifelong ban on political leaders was brought up, and he responded, “It is a human rights violation to disqualify the political leaders for life time.”
He assured the interviewer that the PML-N’s election campaign will be led by Nawaz, Pakistan’s previous prime minister. Political opponents of Nawaz Sharif filed trumped-up charges against him.
