NEW YORK: Minister for Information, Broadcasting, National Heritage and Culture Attaullah Tarar on Tuesday said the clock could not be turned back to give the reserved seats to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) which had made an irreversible mistake by joining the Sunni Ittehad Council in the Parliament which was not a parliamentary party.
Talking to the media, the minister said the PTI could have joined the Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen which had a presence in the House.
He said the government fully endorsed the letter written by the National Assembly Speaker to the Chief Election Commissioner asking how the seats could be given to a party which did not have any existence in the House.
Tarar asked whether the court could rectify the mistake made by the PTI in the past. Whether the independent candidates submitted fake affidavits or they did not attain finality by joining a party, or whether every member had such space to change a party in the House by canceling the affidavit, questioned.
He pointed out that the amendment in the existing election law made it mandatory for an independent candidate to join any political party within three days and “going against the line of a political party for which the affidavit was submitted in the House is tantamount to floor crossing”.
The minister expressed surprise over a statement of PTI leader Salman Akram Raja that he was asked by the court that whether he had any reservations if the PTI were given the reserved seats. The matter required an official clarification, he added.
Moreover, he said, a senior justice, in his dissenting note, had raised very pertinent questions and asked how the PTI could be given relief when it was not a party to the case.
“Constitutionally these questions need to be addressed,” he noted.
He paid tributes to the NA Speaker for upholding the supremacy of the Parliament by writing a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) on the issue of reserved seats. His question was legally justified that how an Assembly member could be allowed to change the party by “overruling legislation and reversing clock”, he added.
