An unnecessary clash

In a seemingly obvious move to circumvent the Supreme Court’s reserved seats verdict, the Parliamentary Affairs Committee of the National Assembly on Wednesday approved a bill proposing amendments to the Elections Act 2017 in order to bar lawmakers from changing their affiliation at a later stage. The bill was tabled by PML-N lawmaker Bilal Azhar Kiyani on Tuesday and amendments were proposed to Section 66 and Section 104 of the Election Act, 2017. The amendments propose that individuals who contest general election as independent candidates cannot change their affidavit at a later stage – after the prescribed time – to declare affiliation with any political party. They also propose that any candidate will be considered an independent candidate if they fail to submit a declaration of affiliation with a political party before seeking the allotment of an election symbol. The bill also proposes that political parties that fail to submit their list for reserved seats within the stipulated time to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) will not be eligible for these reserved seats post election.

The reaction to the proposed bill has been swift and loud – as was expected. Legal and political observers have said that the bill is aimed at ‘nullifying’ the SC’s July 12 verdict that gave the reserved seats to the PTI in the National and provincial assemblies as per the number of seats the party won. If the SC verdict is implemented, the PTI will become the single largest party in the National Assembly. Soon after the verdict, it was announced that the federal government was mulling to ban the PTI. And now it seems that, with the government having failed to convince its allies, the attempt at banning the PTI has been placed on the backburner. Some muse that, because the government’s review petition challenging the SC’s full court decision cannot be heard at the moment, the government has taken advantage of this inactivity and introduced this bill through a private member.

It is quite apparent that the government’s attempt at negating the SC verdict and not implementing it will lead to a clash between the executive and the judiciary. One wonders at the futility of it all. There are already tensions between the higher judiciary and the government and with the government in no obvious mood to follow the SC verdict, the clash can only be furthered. When the July 12 verdict was announced, some had pointed out that the government would do everything in its power to deny the PTI its reserved seats. But the thing is: if Supreme Court verdicts continue to be undermined, we are only headed for a constitutional breakdown. Whether the proposed bill can or cannot affect the SC verdict – there are legal arguments on both sides – the fact is that we are a nation in desperate need of some calm. The past year of laws, court cases, laws, more court cases and verdicts has hardly helped anyone. Can all of the state’s institutions, organs, stakeholders allow a moment of respite to a country that is really on the verge of a meltdown?