Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: The treasury benches on Monday paved the way for Nawaz Sharif to again become party chief, as they successfully managed to get passed the Election Bill 2017 from the National Assembly despite strong protest from opposition lawmakers, while the president signed it into a law in the evening.

The bill has a controversial amendment that will allow politicians disqualified from holding public office to head a political party. The Clause 1 of Article 203 of the Election Bill 2017 has relaxed the criteria for membership of a political party as compared to the previous law, the Political Parties Order, 2002.

A as per the previous law, a person who is not qualified or is disqualified from being a member of parliament under Article 63 of the constriction was also not allowed to become an office-bearer of a political party.

The opposition on Monday declared the said clause “person specific” by considering it a move to facilitate former premier Nawaz Sharif, who was disqualified by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in Panama Papers case.

Earlier, senior leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Shah Mehmood Qureshi while talking on a point of order criticised the government and accused it of converting a unanimous bill into a controversial legislation.

“The bill was an outcome of long efforts rendered by all parliamentary parties, but by making an amendment to Article 203, the government made it controversial because it is against the spirit of the constitution,” he said, adding, “If the law is passed, it will be challenged in the Supreme Court, where most probably it will be set aside.”

Jamaat-e-Islami leader Sahibzada Tariqullah said that the government got approval of this controversial clause by hiding it from the lawmakers. “It is condemnable that a legislation could allow a person who had been disqualified by the Supreme Court to hold office.”

Syed Naveed Qamar of the Pakistan People’s Party declared the amendment “undemocratic” and advised the government to avoid confrontation with institutions and reconsider the amendment.

“Was Benazir Bhutto not a unanimous leader? But she opted to form a new party instead of creating tensions with institutions, when she had faced a similar situation,” he recalled the era of military dictator General (r) Pervez Musharraf.

Senior lawmaker of Muttahida Quami Movement SA Qadri said, “The bill was [supposed] to fix the shortcomings in the existing election processes but this single amendment will be worse than all these shortcomings and loopholes.”

“If we pass this bill, it will be a dishonesty and history will never forget us for it because it is not only against the law but is also against the Islamic sharia,” he added.

Awami Muslim League (AML) chief Sheikh Rashid Ahmad stated that democracy would suffer if the bill was passed. “This law is being passed for one person,” he said. “I am going to the Supreme Court.”

The bill was moved by Minister for Law Zahid Hamid to amend, consolidate and unify laws relating to the conduct of elections.

The opposition lawmakers strongly protested when the bill was moved, and left their seats to gather in front of the speaker’s chair. They were chanting slogans against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif and his family members.

Enraged opposition lawmakers tore copies of the bill and threw them onto the speaker’s dais as he announced its passage.

The House also passed two other bills – The Right of Access to Information Bill, 2017 and The Auditor General’s (Functions, Powers and Terms and Conditions of service) (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

Published in Daily Times, October 3^rd 2017.