National Assembly passes Election Act Amendment Bill amid protest

The bill to amend the election laws in an attempt to prevent the Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI), from securing the reserved seats following the July 12 Supreme Court judgement was on the top of the agenda for National Assembly business today.

According to the agenda, a motion to suspend the rules for presenting the Election Act Amendment Bill 2024 and the Legislative and Amendment Bill 2024 was presented. Bilal Azhar Kiani presented the election amendment bill 2024 for approval.

The bill mandates that a political party should not be allocated seats reserved for women and non muslim candidates if it has failed to submit its list for the reserved seats within the said time.

The Sunni Ittehad Council had not submitted its list for reserved seats. The bill also stated that a candidate should be considered an independent lawmaker if they had not filed a declaration about their association with any political party before seeing allotment of the poll symbol.

Many of PTI’s candidates had failed to submit the party ticket with their nomination papers when it became clear that the party was not getting the bat symbol. The amendment also requires political parties to submit the lists for reserved seats by the deadline set by Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

Only parties winning general seats will get a share in the reserved seats meaning the parties that fail to secure a single general seat would get no share of the reserved seats. The assembly agenda includes the presentation of the report from the standing committee. Various private bills proposed by members would also be provided and discussed for the legislation. 

Agendas were moved by Shahibzada Sibghatullah concerning private power plants. There was also a motion from MQM relating to companies involved in distribution of electricity. Some notions on daily essentials like milk products would also be involved.