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| April 20, 2003 | Sunday | Safar 17, 1424 |
Anti-defection law not to affect PPP Patriots
ISLAMABAD, April 19: Members of the People’s Party Parliamentarians Patriots are not threatened by the anti-defection law, as they severed their relations with the PPP before it came into effect and now the group has been registered as a political party with the Election Commission, sources said.
They said the group was no longer a part of the PPP and legal proceedings against it could not succeed as it had severed its links with the party before the Constitution was fully revived.
Sources in the PPP, however, insist that arguments could be raised that those who were elected on the PPP symbol were covered under the defection clause.
An official of Election Commission confirmed that the Patriots had been registered before the anti-defection clauses were revived. The PPP Patriots had applied for registration as a political party and it had been registered as it fulfilled the requirements, the official said.
PPP sources admitted that the date of the registration of the Patriots was crucial as the acts made before the revival of the Constitution were covered under the Provisional Constitutional Order, which was validated by the Supreme Court under the doctrine of necessity.
Arguments against the defectors could be raised on moral grounds, as the Supreme Court in the Khawaja Tariq case had termed floor-crossing immoral, but they might have little relevance before the judges who had sworn allegiance to the PCO, sources said. “Doubts remain whether the Election Commission, which came into existence under the PCO, and the Supreme Court, might accept the argument,” they said.
Under Article 63-A, amended under the Legal Framework Order, the defection law is applicable when a parliament member votes or abstains contrary to a direction issued by the parliamentary party in the election of a prime minister or chief minister, a confidence or no-confidence resolution or a money bill.
The PPP Patriots, led by Rao Sikandar Iqbal, had supported the Pakistan Muslim League (Quaid-i-Azam) nominee for prime minister against the party line. They got a major share in the cabinet.
Under the law, the PPP led by former prime minister Benazir Bhutto does not exist as it has not been registered because the Political Parties Order, 2002, prohibited a convict from leading a political party.
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