ISLAMABAD, October 5: The National Assembly on Thursday passed the Elections Reforms Amendment Bill 2017, tabled by Law Minister Zahid Hamid, that amends the recently-passed Elections Act 2017 to restore a Khatm-i-Naboowat oath lawmakers are required, to take back to its original state.
Parliamentarians on Tuesday had pointed out that the wordings of Form-A, which is submitted at the time of election by candidates, had been changed so that it had been turned into a declaration form instead of an affidavit, which puts a candidate under oath.
Through the Elections Act 2017, the words in Form-A “I solemnly swear” had been replaced with “I believe” in a clause relating to a candidate’s belief in the finality of the prophethood of Prophet Muhammad and it had been made not applicable to non-Muslim candidates.
Sections 7B and 7C of The Conduct of General Elections Order, 2002, which relate to the status of Ahmedis, had also been omitted from Elections Act 2017.
Section 7B says that the status of Ahmedis remains as stated in the Constitution of Pakistan, while section 7C states that if an enrolled voter’s belief in the finality of Prophet Muhammad’s prophethood is contended, they shall have to sign a declaration stating so, failing which their “name shall be deleted from the joint electoral rolls and added to a supplementary list of voters in the same electoral area as non-Muslim.”
Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq had accepted the changes on Wednesday as “a clerical error” after parliamentary leaders decided to restore the declaration and the sections to their original form.
Hamid appreciated the efforts of parliamentary leaders in ensuring that the amendment was passed and said that it was decided to rectify the mistake as soon as it was noticed.
Former prime minister Mir Zafrullah Jamali blamed Hamid for the change in the Khatm-i-Naboowat laws while Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Shah Mehmood Qureshi also asked the government to determine who was responsible for it. – Agencies
