The National Assembly passed a bill on Sunday to modify the Elections Act of 2017, restricting lawmakers’ disqualification to five years with retroactive effect.

The Elections (Amendment) Bill 2023 also wants to give the ECP the authority to set election dates without consulting the president.

When the bill was approved by the Senate on June 16, Clause 4 — referring to the disqualification of legislators — was inserted because it was just about the ECP powers at the time.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar presented it to the National Assembly today, and it will go into effect immediately.

The amendments are proposed in accordance with Article 62(f) of the Constitution, which states: “A person shall not be qualified to be elected or chosen as a member of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) unless he is sagacious, righteous, non-profligate, honest, and ameen, unless a court of law declares the contrary.”

Legislators should be disqualified.

Concerning the time period for disqualification for lawmakers, the bill includes a modification to Section 232 (Disqualification for offences) of the Election Act of 2017.

“In the said Act, for Section 232, the following shall be substituted and shall, notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (3) of section 1 of the said Act, always be deemed to have been so substituted on and from the commencement of the Constitution (Eighteenth Amendment) Act, 2010.”

The amendment further stated that the mechanism, mode, and length of disqualifications and qualifications should follow the provisions of Articles 62 (qualifications for membership in Parliament) and 63 (disqualifications for membership in Parliament) of the Constitution.

“Where no such procedure, manner, or duration has been provided for therein, the provisions of this Act shall apply,” it continued.

Dawn.com obtained a copy of the measure that was previously presented in the Senate, which includes the following:

“Notwithstanding any other provision of this Act, any other law in force at the time, and any judgement, order, or decree of any court, including the Supreme Court and a high court, the disqualification of a person to be elected, chosen, or continue as a member of the Parliament or provincial assembly under paragraph (f) of clause (1) of Article 62 of the Constitution shall be for a period not exceeding five years from the declaration of the court.”

The authority to declare polling dates unilaterally

Furthermore, revisions to Sections 57(1) (notice of election programme) and 58 (notification of election programme) of the Elections Act have been proposed to allow the ECP to publish election dates unilaterally without consulting the president. These are their names:

Read more : HEC retracts ‘Holi’ notification following backlash and clarifies respect for religious freedom

Section 57(1): The commission shall publish in the official gazette the date or dates of the general elections and shall summon the constituencies to elect their representatives.

Section 58: Notwithstanding anything in Section 57, the commission may, at any time after the issuance of notification under subsection (1) of that section, make such changes in the election programme announced in that notification for the various stages of the election, or issue a new election programme with new poll date(s) as it considers necessary for the purposes of this act, to be recorded in writing.