Reema Shaukat
Election commission of Pakistan has been often under fire for not performing its job well. The National Assembly few months back passed the much awaited historic Election Reforms Bill 2017 with majority vote, aimed at giving additional powers to the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) for ensuring credible polls. The Elections Bill 2017, which contains 241 clauses was moved by Minister for Law Zahid Hamid, also envisages reforms to ensure free, fair and transparent elections in the country. The bill also includes some amendments moved by opposition members. The bill, which was approved by the National Assembly in August, gives every citizen the right to be part of a political party or create one, except those who are in government service.
During the bill presentation, the House was informed that a 33-member Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms headed by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was formed by the government in 2014. The committee drafted the bill after deliberations and consultations for more than two years. Total 118 meetings were
held, 25 by the main committee and 93 by sub-committees under the chairmanship of Zahid Hamid and Dr Arif Alvi. During the comprehensive consultation process, political parties in the parliament and public at large presented various proposals. The parliamentary committee finalized the Election Reforms Bill 2017 unifying eight different laws. In the bill, new measures have been proposed in different areas of electioneering to give more powers to the ECP for holding of free, fair and transparent elections in the country. Through the bill, the ECP had been strengthened and made fully independent and autonomous. According to the bill, the ECP shall prepare an action plan six months before the elections and delimit constituencies after every census.
However, some changes in this electoral reform bill are going to benefit those politicians and leaders who are found guilty of misusing resources or doing corruption while staying in power. These changes in electoral reforms will benefit PML-N ousted leaders particularly. Senate of Pakistan recently approved Electoral Reform Bill 2017 which is now criticised after dismissal of Ex-PM Mian Nawaz Sharif that approval of this bill will help enable former PM to be elected as head of political party. Despite being guilty of corruption, money laundering, tax evasion and forgery, such steps like approval of reforms are being taken by the PML-N to invigorate former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif politically.
The PPP had suggested an amendment in clause 203 of the bill, which said that any individual who is not qualified to become a member of the parliament, should not be eligible to become a party’s chairperson either. The bill also states that any parliamentarian could only be disqualified for a period of five years, a condition which directly effects former PM. Moreover, it states that ECP will be an independent and autonomous body, which will formulate its own law and party funding details will be available online and restricts the caretaker government from making any policy decisions. Former PM Nawaz was disqualified from holding public office by the Supreme Court under Article 62 (1) (f) of the Constitution in the Panama Papers case verdict. Announcing its verdict, the five-member bench unanimously disqualified Nawaz for failing to disclose his un-withdrawn receivables constituting assets from UAE-based Capital FZE in his nomination papers for the 2013 General Election, stating that this meant he was not ‘honest’ and ‘truthful’, as per the Constitution. In the verdict, all five judges ruled to send references against Nawaz Sharif, his children Maryam, Hussain and Hasan, son-in-law Captain (retd) Safdar and Ishaq Dar to an accountability court. The court also ordered the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to file a reference against the accused in an accountability court in six weeks and directed for the trial to be wrapped up within six months.
Clause 203 — which stated that someone who was no longer a member of the National Assembly could not become the chief of a party either. The clause 203, to which Senator Aitzaz Ahsan had proposed an amendment, envisages electoral reforms including a fine of up to Rs0.1 million on lawmakers or three years in jail if irregularities were found in details of their assets and termination of lawmakers’ membership if they fail to submit asset details within 60 days. It also grants ECP additional powers allowing it to summon services of any institution to investigate irregularities in asset details. The amendment was proposed by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), which was defeated by 38 to 37 votes in the Senate despite the opposition has more members in the Upper House of the Parliament. Hence, the amendment was rejected by a margin of only one vote.
The Elections Bill 2017 passed by the Senate will be sent back to the National Assembly for approval because of the amendments, and if the Lower House passes it, the bill will become a law after a formal assent by President Mamnoon Hussain. If the assembly refuses to accept the bill, it will go to a joint sitting of Parliament. The sources said that President Mamnoon Hussain is expected to sign the bill into law immediately after its passage by the Lower House of the Parliament.
However opposition political parties have decided to challenge this bill in court. They will challenge the amendment in the bill, through which a disqualified prime minister could hold a post or lead any political party, in the court. According to sources, the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) has also summoned a crucial meeting of its general council on October 3 and it is most likely that they will elect the deposed prime minister as party head again after the passage of the bill on October 2. If so happens then it would be a great setback to our judicial system and reforms. This suggests that this pre-planned bill is aimed to defy superior judiciary as well as to further strengthen hold of one family onto the wretched people of this country. Moreover the bill will lead to compound the web of corruption further into chaos and mafia. Therefore, approval of such bills is termed as political terrorism by few political figures and it will help bring back that person into power again who is already disqualified by Supreme Court. The restoration of such an act will definitely increase frustrations among common people who want rule of law to prevail in country. Besides, denial of justice in greater extent and distrust on judiciary, approval of bill will keep on giving hierarchical politics a chance to persist in Pakistan.
