ISLAMABAD: A recent judgment of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) may put a halt to the registration of political parties with identical names as the number of parties registered with the title of “Muslim League” exceeded 20.

Likewise, the number of parties listed in the website of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) with the name of “People’s Party” is over 10.

The matter related to the identical names of political parties was discussed in a judgment authored by Justice Athar Minallah of the IHC and announced last month. The judgment related to a petition filed by Naheed Khan, former political secretary to Benazir Bhutto. Ms Khan had sought the title of “Pakistan People’s Party” for her faction, comprising some estranged leaders and workers of the PPP.

The judgment says a new party cannot propose to name itself after an existing party unless the latter gives consent

Though Justice Minallah dismissed the petition, in the judgment he interpreted some articles of the Political Parties Order (PPO) 2002.

Among the sections of the PPO, the court discussed subsection 3 of Article 3 which states: “Every political party shall have a distinct name.”

According to the court interpretation: “An association or conglomerate has a distinct name i.e. a separate, distinguishable and decidedly different name from the political parties already formed and granted symbols.”

It added: “The function of the ECP is crucial. There is no cavil to the proposition that an association of citizens, which meets the definition of political party under Article 2 (d) of the Order of 2002, cannot propose a name which is similar to an existing political party unless the latter has given its consent.”

For several decades and even in the recent past, the ECP registered a number of parties with the similar title.

For example, after the emergence of the Aam Admi Party in India, the ECP registered at least seven parties with the name of Aam Admi and similar titles. These are: Aam Admi Party, All Pakistan Aam Admi Party, Aam Admi Party of Pakistan, Aam Admi Justice Party, Aam Insan Movement, Aam Pakistani and Aam Log.

The Muslim League was affected the most as different politicians and even dictators registered their political factions with its title.

At present, the official list of the ECP contains 21 parties registered with the name of the PML.

Among them the prominent are: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, Pakistan Muslim League headed by Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, All Pakistan Muslim League of Pervez Musharraf, Awami Muslim League of Sheikh Rashid, PML (Junejo), PML (Zehri) and others.

Likewise, the title of the People’s Party is being used for the PPP, PPP-Parliamentarian, PPPP-Patriots, PPP (Shaheed Bhutto), PPP-Workers etc.

According to legal expert and senior politician Barrister S. M. Zafar, due to conflicts within political parties some groups formed new factions. The military dictators also used the names of political parties, especially the PML, to legitimise their unlawful regimes, he said.

He, however, added that the practice existed even before the partition, adding even in India major political parties also suffered the emergence of factions.

Barrister Zafar said the court order would stop the registration of parties with the already existed names but it could not be applied on the parties already registered with identical names.

Published in Dawn, March 5th, 2017