Nawaz Sharif and Jahangir Tareen to benefit as NA approves bill limiting parliamentarians’ disqualification to 5 years
Nawaz Sharif and Jahangir Tareen to benefit as the National Assembly (NA) on Sunday approved the bill limiting parliamentarians’ disqualification to 5 years!
The National Assembly approved the Election Amendment Bill 2023 restraining the period of disqualification of a parliament to a maximum of five years and removing the bar from running for a public office again.
Finance Minister Ishaq Dar tabled amendments bill and the House unanimously approved Section 57 of the Election Act 2017. Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf presented the bill for voting which was passed with a majority.
The amendment provided that the term of punishment for the crime where the term is not specified in the Constitution, and disqualification will not exceed five years.
Election Amendment Bill 2023 adopted and Passed by National Assembly#NASession #Budget2023 pic.twitter.com/zwy4KpudVi
— National Assembly 🇵🇰 (@NAofPakistan) June 25, 2023
With the approval of the bill, the Election Commission is to get back the authority to announce the election program, and schedule, in which any kind of change will be the authority of the Election Commission.
It should be noted that while presenting the bill in the Senate, the Law Minister had said that under the original law of 1976, the ECP had the mandate to fix the date of general elections, but after the imposition of martial law in 1977, the then military rulers Zia-ul-Haq had given this power to the President through an ordinance.
The amendments introduced in the Election Act state that:
• Section 57 (1): The Commission shall announce the date or dates of general elections by notification in the Official Gazette and shall call upon the constituencies to elect their representatives.
• Section 58: Subject to anything contained in section 57, the Commission may at any time after the issue of notification under sub-section (1) of this section make such changes in the election program announced in that notification for the various stages of the election. may make or issue or for the purposes of this Act a new election program which must be recorded in writing with the fresh date(s) of polling.
Following the development, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supremo Nawaz Sharif and Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) chief Jahangir Khan Tareen are likely to be among those who benefit from the move.
The Supreme Court disqualified both senior politicians in June and December 2017, respectively, after they were found to be “dishonest” under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution.
