Hours after it sailed through the National Assembly, the Senate approved the controversial Elections (Second Amendment) Bill, 2024, on Tuesday.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz's (PML-N) Senator Talal Chaudhry presented the amendment bill in the upper house of parliament amid strong opposition from the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) senators.
The National Assembly Tuesday approved a bill proposing amendments to the Elections Act 2017 to bar lawmakers from changing their party affiliation amid strong resistance from opposition benches who termed the legislation "unconstitutional".
Tabled by PML-N lawmaker Bilal Azhar Kiyani last month, the NA Parliamentary Affairs Committee approved the bill with the support of eight members, four members opposed it, and Shahid Akhtar, a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) MNA, abstained from voting.
Earlier speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, PTI’s Ali Muhammad Khan argued that the bill would deprive him of his rights while Gohar Ali Khan also lamented its consequences for his party.
Ali Muhammad questioned whether the Parliament could be used by a political party to attack the Supreme Court for its political gains.
He said that his party could not be convicted for something it had done in the past even if the government moves forward with lawmaking against it.
“If my party is being granted a right through a Supreme Court order […] How can you make a new law after the Supreme Court’s order and deny us that right?” Ali Muhammad said.
“We are protesting […] We reject this bill. This is an attack on the SC through the parliament by the government,” he said, adding that lawmaking should be done for the benefit of the country.
“We will go to the SC against it and this lawmaking will be nullified because the Parliament is not standing behind this, there’s a political party behind it,” he said.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan on July 12 declared the PTI eligible for seats reserved for women and minorities, dealing a major setback to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition.
The verdict came after the top court heard a set of appeals moved by the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) against the denial of reserved seats for women and non-Muslims to it by the Peshawar High Court (PHC) and the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
PTI-backed candidates, who had contested and won the February 8 elections as independents after their party was stripped of its election symbol, had joined the SIC to form a coalition of convenience.
The top court on July 12 annulled the decision of the PHC while also declaring the decision of the election regulator null and void, terming it against the Constitution of Pakistan.
