ISLAMABAD / LAHORE: The custodians of two houses of parliament — the National Assembly and Punjab Assembly — have once again asked the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to allocate reserved seats in both houses as per the amended law.

In his second letter to the ECP in less than a month, NA Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said parliamentary leaders in the assembly have urged him for the allocation of reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in line with the amended Elections Act, 2017.

On Aug 6, the government bulldozed the controversial amendments through parliament, clearly aimed at overriding the Supreme Court’s verdict on reserved seats and sapping the expected strength of PTI in both houses.

The amendments stipulated that a political party would not be allocated seats reserved for women and non-Muslim candidates if it failed to submit its list for the reserved seats within the time prescribed by the ECP.

Seek notification of reserved seats in line with amended Elections Act; say delay tantamount to questioning parliament’s authority

Another amendment said candidates would be considered independent lawmakers if they failed to submit a declaration about their party affiliation before the allotment of election symbols.

It also barred independent candidates from joining a political party after the period specified by the ECP to do so.

The provisions also stated that no existing law or verdict given by any court would affect their enforcement.

The speaker also referred to his last letter, written on Sept 19, and deplored that three weeks have passed and “no decision had been made by the ECP” on the issue of reserved seats.

This is tantamount to violating the law and questioning the legislative authority of parliament, Speaker Sadiq contended.

He said parliamentary leaders have requested him to send an urgent reminder to the ECP for action as per the law.

The parliamentary leaders, the speaker added, wrote letters to him as custodians of the National Assembly, where the matter of allocation of reserved seats was pending before the ECP.

The parliamentary leaders also mentioned that the issue before ECP is a simple question of law: whether to allocate reserved seats as per the provisions of Article 51 of the Constitution and amended sections 67 and 104 of the Elections Act, 2017 or as per the Supreme Court’s decision of July 12.

“[T]he matter of reserved seats may be resolved without any further delay in accordance with the existing provisions of the Constitution and the Elections Act, 2017 as amended by the Parliament,” the speaker said.

PA speaker’s letter On Tuesday, Punjab Assembly Speaker Malik Mohammad Ahmad Khan also wrote a second letter to the ECP on the issue of reserved seats.

Interestingly, the previous letters by speakers of National and Punjab assemblies, both belonging to PML-N, were also written on the same day.

Speaker Khan once again asked the ECP to implement the amended Elections Act and decide the allocation of reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in the provincial assembly.

Referring to his previous letter, dated Sept 19, Speaker Khan said the president had signed the amendments into law on Aug 7, but it has not been implemented yet.

He emphasised that parliament’s supremacy is the “foundation of any democracy” and all institutions must strive to uphold this sanctity.

The adherence to the principles of parliamentary sovereignty is essential to maintaining the integrity of the democratic system, Mr Khan wrote.

Any delay in the implementation of a law passed by parliament is “tantamount to disregarding the will of the people”.

The Punjab Assembly speaker urged the ECP to immediately implement the amended Elections Act to preserve the sanctity of the democratic system.

Published in Dawn, October 9th, 2024