ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court was moved on Friday to declare as unconstitutional all sections of the Election Act 2017 which allow a disqualified member of parliament to hold party office.
The petition, filed by advocate Azhar Siddique, maintains that electing a disqualified person as head of a political party was tantamount to usurping the spirit of the constitution. It states that barring disqualified members of parliament from running for public office for just five years was a violation of the constitution.
It contended that the Election Act 2017 passed by parliament was completely an encroachment on the autonomy of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
It maintained that after the passage of this law, the ECP was unable to even issue an ordinary notification by itself, which was against its (ECP) autonomy. The petition contended that the law has taken the ECP out of its constitutional sphere and made it subordinate to the ministries and departments.
It recalled that the amendments made to the Khatm-i-Nabuwwat oath in the act were reversed with the passage of the the Elections (Amendment) Bill 2017.
The Election Bill 2017, commonly known as electoral reforms bill, was approved by parliament and subsequently signed into law by the president on October 2, 2017. A controversial clause in the bill allowed disqualified politicians to hold a public office or to lead a political party. The Election Reforms Act 2017 paved the way for disqualified prime minister Nawaz Sharif to be re-elected as head of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). Section 203 of the Electoral Reforms Bill, 2017, allows every citizen, except for government servants, to form a political party or become its office-bearer.
It may be recalled here that nine petition have so far been filed with the Supreme Court challenging the controversial Election Act 2017.
These petitions had been earlier returned by the registrar’s office on the grounds that the petitioners had directly approached the apex court instead of availing the remedies offered by the appropriate forums.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar took up the matter in his chamber and ordered the court’s office to remove the objections and fix the petitions before a bench of the court to rule on the maintainability of the petitions before proceeding further.
The petitions against the Election Act 2017 were filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad of Awami Muslim League, Syed Nayyar Hussain Bukhari of Pakistan People’s Party, PPP MNA Jamshed Dasti, Pakistan Justice Party, All-Pakistan Aam Aadmi Party, the Justice Party, advocate Zulfikar Bhutta, Dawood Ghaznavi, Sheikh Ahsanuddin and Abdul Wadood Qureshi.
Majority of the petitions plead that Nawaz Sharif-specific amendment to the law was mala fide and unconstitutional, since it was introduced to accommodate only one person, who had already been disqualified by the Supreme Court under Article 62(1)(f) of the Constitution.
Published in Daily Times, December 23rd 2017.
