President signs Election Amendment Bill into law

It was passed by the National Assembly and the Senate with majority

Web Desk

Updated 08 Aug, 2024

Pakistan

President Asif Ali Zardari has signed the Election Amendment Bill 2024, after which the Election Amendment Bill has now become a formal Act.

The bill was approved by National Assembly as well.

President signed the Election Amendment Bill 2024 yesterday, after which the bill was sent to the Senate Secretariat for the gazette notification.

The gazette notification of the Election Amendment Bill will be issued today.

The Election Amendment Bill was passed by the National Assembly and then also approved by the Senate with a majority. Opposition members protested vehemently and raised slogans after the bill was passed by the house.

In this regard, the leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) say that the approval of this bill has attacked the Supreme Court through the Parliament, i.e. one institution has attacked another institution to crush a political party.

Election Amendment Act

The Election Amendment Bill 2024 was introduced after the Supreme Court’s specific decision on July 12 regarding the seats of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party. The court had directed the Election Commission of Pakistan to allocate the reserved seats to PTI.

The first amendment as per this new Election Act 2024 is that no member of the assembly can change their party affiliation or party certificate.

The second amendment states that to obtain the reserved seats, it is necessary for a party to have submitted their list of candidates on time.

The first amendment has been introduced in Section 66 of the Election Act 2017, while the second amendment has been made in Section 104 of the Election Act 2017. As per the Election Amendment Act 2024, these two amendments will come into immediate effect after approval.

In response to the approval of this bill, the PTI chairman Barrister Gohar has challenged the Election Commission Amendment Act in the Supreme Court.

Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, through the mediation of Salman Akram Raja, has filed a petition under Article 184/3 in the Supreme Court, making the federal government and the Election Commission as parties.

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