ISLAMABAD: A joint session of the Parliament on Wednesday passed amendments to the Election Act 2017, granting the caretaker government powers to take actions or decisions regarding existing bilateral or multilateral agreements and projects.
The Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was presented by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Murtaza Javed Abbasi.
The PML-N had on Sunday announced that an amendment was being introduced to empower the interim setup to have powers similar to that of an elected government.
“The interim setup will not be confined to day-to-day affairs of the government till elections are held. An amendment is being brought (to the Constitution) to empower the caretaker setup to take important decisions like an elected government does,” PML-N supreme leader’s spokesperson Muhammad Zubair said.
The amendment is among several others being proposed to the elections laws ahead of polls scheduled to take place later this year.
However, during a joint session of the Parliament a day earlier, objections were raised to the amendment after which it was deferred for a day.
When the session resumed today, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said the government had prepared a new draft of the said amendment after concerns were raised by the allies and opposition members.
“Apart from Section 230, there was 100 per cent consensus on all the other amendments,” he said.
Tarar clarified that while it was being said that the amendment to Section 230 was made a day earlier, “the truth is that the changes were proposed five days back via WhatsApp and email” to members of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms.
“But the committee was called again today and examined the amendment to Section 230 again,” he said, adding that the members of the committee deemed the changes “unnecessary”.
Tarar further said that a new draft of the amendment, to simplify Section 230, had been shared by Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar. “Rest of the amendments that have been circulated are those on which there is 100pc consensus.”
The draft of the law says: “Provided that sub-sections 1 and 2 shall not apply where the caretaker government has to take actions or decisions regarding existing bilateral or multilateral agreements or the projects already initiated under the Public Private Partnership Authority Act 2017, the Inter-Governmental Commercial Transactions Act 2022, and the Privatisation Commission Ordinance 2000.”
PTI says caretaker’s powers violation of Constitution
PTI Senator Ali Zafar said that a caretaker government could not replace an elected representative government.
“The sole responsibility of the caretaker government is to hold fair, transparent and timely elections. The caretaker government can only run the day-to-day administrative affairs of the country.”
Zafar added that if the caretaker government was given the powers of an elected government, it would be tantamount to trampling the Constitution.
“If the parliament doesn’t reject it today, the Supreme Court will strike it down in the next few days,” the PTI senator warned.
Rabbani drops objection, falters again
Meanwhile, PPP Senator Raza Rabbani said that though he believed these extra powers should not be with the caretaker government, but he had no objection to other amendments to the Election Act 2017.
This is second time he dropped his principled objection to the amendments like he did to an amendment allowing extension in the services of the chief of army staff and other services chiefs.
“Section 230, as it stood yesterday, was opposed by a lot of members who had several observations against it. I am grateful to the law minister that he keep yesterday’s discussion in view and this is the beauty of the Parliament that the government is guided by the wisdom of the House.”
He asserted that wisdom prevailed and as a result, subclause one and subclause 2 of the amendment had been deleted.
However, at the same time, Rabbani said: “I believe that the powers, no matter what the exigencies that are existing, these powers should not be with the caretaker government.”
