PTI protests as NA committee passes bill to ‘circumvent’ reserved seats ruling
The PTI registered its protest as a National Assembly committee on Wednesday approved a bill proposing amendments to the election law, suggesting that a political party should not be allocated seats reserved for women and non-Muslim candidates if it failed to submit its list for the reserved seats within the prescribed time.
The PML-N had tabled the Election Act (Amendment) Bill, 2024, in the National Assembly on Tuesday. Immediately after the bill was tabled, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar suggested it would be appropriate if the bill was referred to a committee for input from all political parties.
Another amendment proposed to the Elections Act 2017 in the bill said that a candidate should be considered an independent lawmaker if they had not filed a declaration with the returning officer about their affiliation with a particular political party before seeking the allotment of a poll symbol.
Similarly, it also said that an independent candidate shall not be considered a candidate of any political party if, at a later stage, they filed a statement to that effect.
The amendments to sections 66 and 104 also included a declaration that the proposed amendments would take precedence over court orders, including the Supreme Court.
Some political observers are seeing the controversial bill as a move to frustrate the Supreme Court judgement on July 12, which had declared the PTI eligible for reserved seats in the National Assembly and provincial assemblies and also confirmed its status as a parliamentary party.
The National Assembly Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs met today to discuss the bill and approved it by a vote of eight against four with one abstention from the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl.
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said the issue of independent members joining any political party and reserved seats was “clear”, adding that the bill cleared up many confusions.
“Parliament is the legislative body. Courts only interpret. Parliament has the power to legislate where it feels its powers are being interfered with or the Constitution is being rewritten. It is the power of Parliament to make constitutions and laws,” the minister said, asserting that there was nothing new in the bill.
Meanwhile, PTI MNA Ali Muhammad Khan remarked that “the bill seems to have come with the will of the law minister.”
He questioned whether the bill, were it to be made an act, would apply retroactively or not to which Tarar said it would. The PTI lawmaker said the bill would be tantamount to pitting Parliament against the Supreme Court.