- Petitioner labels the amendments as unconstitutional, urging the court to nullify it
LAHORE: A citizen on Friday moved the Lahore High Court (LHC), challenging the Pakistan Election Amendment Act 2024 recently enacted to bar independent lawmakers from joining a political party after a stipulated period.
Mushkoor Hussain has filed the petition through Advocate Nadeem Sarwar and has made the federal government, the Election Commission, the President, and the Prime Minister as respondents in the case.
A day earlier, President Asif Ali Zardari signed into law the amendments designed to prevent lawmakers from changing their party affiliation within three days of winning election.
Additionally, the amendments restrict reserved seats from being allocated to parties that did not win a single seat in the election.
The petition argues that the amendments were introduced to overturn the Supreme Court’s verdict on reserved seats, labeling these amendments as unconstitutional.
The petitioner contended that four amendments were made to the Election Act to render the Supreme Court reserved seats verdict ineffective.
“The amendment act was passed without approval of the relevant committee and consultation”, he claimed.
The petitioner is seeking a declaration from the LHC to nullify the amendments and has also requested a stay order to halt the implementation of the amended Act until the court makes its final decision.
It is pertinent to note that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has also challenged the petition in the Supreme Court on August 7, labelled it violation of constitution and law and aimed to thwart PTI.
PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan filed a constitutional petition in the Supreme Court and prayed to the apex court to annul the Election Amendment Act.
An Article 184-3 application was filed through the mediation of Salman Akram Raja. The Federation and the Election Commission have been made parties in the petition.
Barrister Gohar Ali Khan requested the court to declare the newly passed amendments as “unconstitutional”.
“[…] The instant petition seeks to challenge, therefore, subversion of the democratic process made by the Impugned Act and is, therefore, a petition that raises questions of immense public importance with reference to the enforcement of the fundamental rights, conferred by the Constitution, in particular the rights guaranteed by Article 17,” read the petition.
“Past and closed transactions that have taken place in terms of the Constitution and the Elections Act, 2017 prior to the enactment of the Impugned Act cannot be undone through the deemed retrospectively purportedly assigned to the Impugned Act,” it added.
“The expression of the will of the people once made cannot be retrospectively subjected to restrictions that were non-existent at the time, and that are in any case unconstitutional. Actions taken by the people and their chosen representatives in the exercise of their constitutional rights cannot be undone by parliament through legislation. Such legislation suffers from malice in law.”
The petition was filed under Article 184(3) (original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court) of the Constitution.
Article 184(3) of the Constitution sets out the SC’s original jurisdiction and enables it to assume jurisdiction in matters involving a question of “public importance” with reference to the “enforcement of any of the fundamental rights” of Pakistan’s citizens.
The legislation comes after the apex court’s July 12 ruling that declared the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) eligible for the seats reserved for women and minorities in the Nation as well as provincial assemblies.
ELECTION AMENDMENT ACT
President Asif Ali Zardari on Thursday signed the ‘controversial’ Election Act Amendment Bill 2024, into law.
The Senate passed the Election Act Amendment Bill by a majority vote despite protest by the opposition Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Aug 6.
As session of the upper house of the parliament started with Yousuf Raza Gilani in the chair, PML-N Senator Talal Chaudhry presented the Election Act Amendment Bill. The opposition members stood on their seats and started protest.
The amendment provides that “a candidate who does not submit the party certificate before obtaining the election symbol will be considered an independent candidate.
If the list of candidates for reserved seats is not submitted within the specified period, no political party will be entitled to those seats.”
It also provides that any candidate’s declaration of affiliation to a political party will be irrevocable.
