NA committee passes bill to 'circumvent' reserved seats ruling

ISLAMABAD: The bill proposing amendments to the Elections Act 2017 was approved by the National Assembly's Parliamentary Affairs Committee on Wednesday. 

The amendments seek to bar lawmakers, who contested the general elections as independent candidate, from changing their affiliation to a political party at a later stage.

The panel passed 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.

Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said that the matter of independent members joining any political party and the issue of reserved seats is clear.

Ali Muhammad Khan from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) stated that this is a private member's bill, and therefore, the law minister should not advocate for it

The bill was tabled by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Bilal Azhar Kiyani on Tuesday and the amendments were proposed to the Section 66 and Section 104 of the Election Act, 2017.

What does the bill say?

The bill proposed that the individuals who contested general election as independent candidate cannot change their affidavit at a later stage to declare affiliation with any political party.

"Provided further that an independent candidate shall no, be considered as the candidate of any political party if at later stage he files a statement duly signed and notarised stating that he contested the general elections as a candidate of the political party specified therein,” read the bill.

The bill also proposed that political parties who failed to submit list of the reserved seats within the stipulated time to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will not be eligible for the reserved seats.

“Provided further that if any political party fails to submit its list for reserved seats within the aforesaid prescribed time period, it shall not be eligible for the quota in the reserved seats at later stage," the bill stated.

Moreover, it proposed that any candidate will be considered as an independent candidate if they fail to submit declaration for affiliation with a political party before seeking the allotment of an election symbol.

“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 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," the bill read.

"This Act shall come into force at once and shall be deemed to have taken effect on and from the commencement of the Elections Act, 2017," the bill read.