ISLAMABAD: The Elections Act, 2017 [The Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2023] sailed through parliament’s joint session on Wednesday.
The amendments were introduced by y Parliamentary Affairs Minister and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader Murtaza Javed Abbasi.
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar told the joint sitting of the parliament that the government had prepared a new draft of the said amendment after concerns were raised by the allies and opposition members including PPP senator Raza Rabbani and PTI senator Ali Zafar.
The law minister said that apart from Section 230, there was 100 per cent consensus on all the other amendments.
Additional powers to interim setup
Law Minister Nazir Tarar said that amendments are being made in the Election Act on which there is 100 percent agreement.
“The caretaker government will be given limited authority to make major decisions and international agreements,” he said.
However, the amendments presented by Senator Mushtaq Ahmed of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) was rejected by majority opinion of the joint sitting.
Presiding officer, results and elections
According to the amendments, a presiding officer will now be bound to submit for timely delivery of results and PO will immediately send the results to the Election Commission of Pakistan and to the Returning Officer (RO).
The presiding officer will take a picture of the final result and send it to the Returning Officer and the Election Commission. In case of non-availability, the Presiding Officer (PO) will be bound to deliver the actual result physically.
Further, the Presiding Officer shall be bound to deliver the results by 2pm on the night of the elections or will have to give a solid reason in case of delay.
Presiding Officer (PO) shall have a deadline of 10:00 AM on the next day to submit the election results.
On indicating the quorum, the Speaker directed the counting, upon which the process of passing the Elections Act Bill was stopped.
The government needed 113 members to complete the quorum of the joint session, so the legislative process resumed once the quorum was met and the amendments sailed through joint sitting of the Parliament.
Speaking at the joint session of the Parliament, Senator Syed Ali Zafar said that the Electoral Reforms Committee worked very well and introduced three types of amendments.
“The people have given a sacred power to the Parliament. The term of the National Assembly is five years, after which the country goes into caretaker mode,” he said.
“In the whole world, Pakistan is the only country where this concept is found and the words caretaker prime minister and caretaker cabinet are used in the Constitution,” he empahiszed.
A caretaker government cannot replace an elected representative government, PTI senator said.
The sole responsibility of the caretaker government is to hold fair, transparent and timely elections, he added.
He insisted that the caretaker government can run the day-to-day administrative affairs. “If the caretaker government is given the powers of an elected government, it will be tantamount to trampling on the Constitution,’ he opined.
The Parliament’s joint session has been adjourned till August 7 till 11am.
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