The National Assembly passed a bill on Tuesday asking amendments to the Elections Act 2017 to stop lawmakers from changing their party loyalties amid strong reaction from the opposition benches mainly PTI who called the bill “unconstitutional”.
The legislation was proposed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) politician Bilal Azhar Kiyani last month, and it was approved by the NA Parliamentary Affairs Committee after that.
Eight members of the NA panel voted in favor of the measure, while four members were against it. Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) MNA Shahid Akhtar did not cast a vote.
The law will stop candidates who ran as independents in the general election from subsequently amending their affidavit to indicate their connection with a political party after it is signed into law by the president and the Senate.
The PTI’s “resurrection” in the assembly following the Supreme Court’s July 12 verdict that qualified the Imran Khan-founded party for reserved seats might be undone if the bill becomes law.
A total of 93 lawmakers from three provincial legislatures have now been notified as PTI members by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP). 29 PTI members from Punjab, 58 from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and 6 from Sindh were listed in a notice released by the electoral commission.
At the same time, the ECP has recognized 39 NA parliamentarians as PTI members who had indicated their PTI membership in their nomination papers.
The provisions of the legislation have a retroactive effect and will be implemented as of the Elections Act of 2017.
The bill amends Section 66 of the Elections Act by stating that a candidate will be “considered to be considered as an independent candidate and not a candidate of any political party” if they do not provide the returning officer (RO) with a declaration of their affiliation with a political party prior to requesting the election symbol.
A political party will not be eligible for reserved seats at a later date if it does not submit its list for reserved seats within the allotted time frame, according to the change to Section 104.
Additionally, it amends the original statute by adding a new section called Section 104A, which states that an independent candidate’s assent or affidavit about joining a political party is “irrevocable” and forbids its withdrawal or substitution.
