ISLAMABAD: In an apparent move to get the controversial Elections Act (Amendment) Bill passed by both houses of parliament, President Asif Ali Zardari has summoned a Senate session on Aug 5 (Monday) in exercise of powers conferred on him by Article 54(1) of the Constitution.

Informed sources said the bill, which had already been cleared by the National Assembly’s relevant standing committee, would land in the Senate on Monday evening after being passed in the lower house the same day.

The move is aimed at preventing the re-emergence of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf as the single largest party in the National Assembly.

Sources said the bill would be rushed through the Senate either without being referred to its standing committee concerned or after allowing very short time to the committee to submit its report.

President summons session of upper house tomorrow

In a major blow to the ruling coalition led by the PML-N, the Supreme Court on July 12 declared PTI eligible for reserved seats for women and minorities.

The verdict was announced by a 13-member bench and was live-streamed on YouTube. A day earleir, the court had reserved its decision on the matter after closing the hearing on a set of appeals moved by the Sunni Ittehad Council against the denial of the reserved seats to it.

On July 30, a bill proposing am­­endments to the election law lan­ded in the NA. Moved by PML-N lawmaker Bilal Azhar Kayani, the bill suggests that a political party should not be allocated seats reserved for women and non-Muslim candidates if it fails to submit its list for the reserved seats within the prescribed time.

Another amendment proposed to the Elections Act, 2017 said a candidate should be considered an independent lawmaker if they had not filed a declaration with the returning officer about their affiliation with a party before seeking the allotment of a poll symbol. It also said that an independent candidate shall not be considered a candidate of any party if they filed a statement to that effect at a later stage.

Interestingly, the amendments to sections 66 and 104 of the Elections Act also included a declaration that the proposed amendments would take precedence over court orders.

The controversial bill, which was cleared by the NA’s standing committee on July 31, is being seen by political observers as a move to frustrate the SC decision on reserved seats.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2024