Both houses of Parliament passed the Election Act Amendment Bill 2024 on Tuesday amid PTI protest against the legislation. The opposition expressed strong dissent against the bill’s introduction, with members tearing copies of the draft in protest.

The bill to amend the election laws in an attempt to prevent the PTI from securing reserved seats following the July 12 Supreme Court judgment was on the top of the agenda for National Assembly business on Tuesday.

According to the agenda, a motion to suspend the rules for presenting the Election Amendment Bill 2024 and the Legislative and Amendment Bill 2024 was tabled. 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 failed to submit its list for the reserved seats within the prescribed time.

The Sunni Ittehad Council had not submitted its lists for reserved seats.

The bill also says that a candidate should be considered an independent lawmaker if they had not filed a declaration with the returning officer about their affiliation with a particular political party before seeking the allotment of a poll symbol.

Many of the PTI candidates had failed to submit party ticket with their nomination papers when it became clear that the party was not getting bat symbol.

The amendment also requires political parties to submit their lists for reserved seats by the deadline set by the ECP. Only parties winning general seats will get a share in the reserved seats. The party that failed to secure a single general seat would get no share at all.

NA committee passes amendments to Election Act, minister warns against rewriting constitution

“Provided that if a candidate, before seeking allotment of a prescribed symbol, has not filed a declaration before the returning officer about his affiliation with a particular political party by submitting a party certificate from the political party confirming that he is that party’s candidate, he shall be deemed to be considered as an independent candidate and not a candidate of any political party,” the text of the bill said.

Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar briefed the committee that the bill would remove much confusion, causing PTI’s Ali Muhammad to express surprise at the minister’s defence of a private member bill.

The bill was presented in the Senate later in the day where it was passed by the majority. Opposition leader Shibli Faraz termed it a “direct attack” on the Supreme Court and its verdict in the reserved seats case.

“The elected Parliament has the right to lawmaking, not it cannot be given to 17 people,” the law minister said.