President Asif Ali Zardari has signed the Elections Act (Second Amendment) Bill, 2024, after it was passed by both houses of the Parliament – the National Assembly and the Senate, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
After the signing of the Bill by the President on Thursday, the amended legislation has become a law.
The Bill was passed by both the National Assembly and the Senate on Tuesday last which was aimed at, as the Opposition parties put it, circumventing the Supreme Court’s ruling on reserved seats.
The new law had introduced amendments to the Elections Act 2017 to bar lawmakers from changing their party affiliation.
The apex court on July 12 declared PTI a political party and eligible for reserved seats, which paved the way for the Imran Khan-founded party's return to the parliament but also effectively deprived the PML-N led coalition government of its two-thirds majority in the parliament.
On Wednesday, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had moved the Supreme Court against the law that would bar independent lawmakers from joining a political party after a stipulated period. The move came just a day after both houses of the Parliament passed the Bill amid strong opposition from the PTI. The Parliament saw hasty proceedings as both houses passed the bill after the suspension of the rules, without any debate on the issue.
The text of the amended law reads: “Provided that if a candidate, before seeking allotment of a prescribed symbol, has not filed a declaration before the returning officer about his affiliation with a particular political party by submitting a party certificate from the political party confirming that he is that party’s candidate, he shall be deemed to be considered as an independent candidate and not a candidate of any political party.”
According to the Statement of the Objects and Reasons: Articles 51 and 106 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan provide for the allocation of seats to the National Assembly and Provincial Assemblies respectively along with mechanism for the elections thereto and include that the independent returned candidate or candidates may duly join a political party within three days of the publication in the official Gazette of the names of the returned candidates.
The Elections Act, 2017 and the rules made thereunder also provide for the right to independent returned candidate or candidates to duly join a political party at his consent.
Neither the Constitution nor the Elections Act, 2017 provide for joining a political party by an independent returned candidate or candidates at a subsequent stage when they have already exercised the option to join the political party at a point of time as specified in the Constitution.
To provide clarity in the law in the true spirit of the Constitution this Bill has been designed to expressly provide for that no independent candidate or candidates shall exercise his/their right to join a political party at a subsequent stage after the period specified for the purpose in the Constitution and the law.