Senate passes bill to end lifetime disqualification, empower ECP to decide election date

F.P. Report

ISLAMABAD: The Senate on Friday has passed a bill amending the Election Act with a majority vote under which the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) can now decide the election date or dates.

Despite opposition from PTI and Jamaat-e-Islami senators, the house stamped the legislation amending Section 57 of the Election Act.

The bill empowered the ECP to announce the date or dates for general elections, amend the election schedule or announce the new election date.

The Upper House of the parliament has now passed on the right to announce election date to the ECP, the right that was previously rested with the president and the governors of each province.

The set of changes introduced through Election Act (Amendment) Bill 2023 also abolished the lifetime disqualification of a legislator. In cases where the duration of deseating has not been specifically outlined, a person’s disqualification to run for provincial or federal legislatures will not exceed five years, the new rules apply.

The amendments say that a person’s eligibility to become member of parliament will be decided according to the criteria set under Article 62 and 63 of the Constitution. In case the Constitution does not have a special provision for disqualification, any person disqualified through a court decision will be disqualified for a maximum of five years starting from the day the verdict is announced. Disqualification under Article 62(1)(f) will not go to beyond five years.

The new rules were introduced by amending clause 232 of the Election Act.

The changes to bill seeking end to lifetime disqualification was suggested by Senator Hafiz Abdul Kareem and Senator Dilawar Khan.

Federal Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar informed the Senate that Pakistan is a responsible state and no one can dare to cast ill eyes on atomic and other assets of the country.

Speaking in the Senate in response to points raised by Senator Mushtaq Ahmed, the minister said that no member of the federal cabinet was taking salaries and very minimum perks were being given to them. Only 1800 CC car and petrol at par with federal secretary was being given to them.

Earlier resuming debate on the budget, Senator Mushtaq Ahmed said that International Monterey Fund (IMF) wanted to default Pakistan and creating hurdles in disbursement of $ 1 billion tranche. Such tactics were being adopted to snatch atomic bomb facility of Pakistan, he added.

He suggested that elimination of elite and protocol culture besides curbing various ‘mafias’ were mandatory to address the key challenges to the national economy.

He criticized the government for not giving any concrete plan for debt retiring, controlling inflation, civil and police reforms.

He said that the national debt has surged to record Rs 60,000 billion and the budget lacked any concrete plan to address this grave issue. He demanded that a commission should be formed to investigate who had borrowed these hefty loans and where it had been spent.

He said inflation has also touched to 38 per cent which was even more than Sri Lanka. There was no programme to overpower circular debt which was a result of mismanagement and poor governance, he added.

He claimed that there was also dire need of reforms in FBR as there was leakage of Rs 1000 billion in it.

He said that in new merged districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, no development was carried out and no facility was extended to these areas. Tax exemption should be given to Malakand and erstwhile FATA for next 10 years instead of one year, he said.

Rana Maqbool of PML-N said the government has given a balanced budget despite many challenges. He said many incentives were given to the agriculture and IT sectors besides for youth.

He said significant increase in pension and salary of the employees has been announced in the budget which would provide prompt relief to the people.

He said amendment should also be brought in the House so its recommendation could be binding to incorporate in the money bill.