The Senate has passed a bill seeking amendments to the Election Act 2017.
These amendments would empower the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to announce the date for the general elections independently.
In separate letters to National Assembly Speaker Raja Pervaiz Ashraf and Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani in April this year, Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja asked the parliament to pass the aforementioned legislation.
State Minister Shahadat Awan tabled the bill in the upper house of the parliament that would allow the ECP to announce an election date and make changes to the election programme.
The amendments to the bill were opposed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). Leader of the Opposition Shahzad Waseem said that parliament was being bulldozed, adding that allowing the ECP to choose a date for polls would be a “violation of the Constitution”.
Section 57-1 stated that the ECP would be authorised to announce the date for the general elections. Section 58 said: “The Commission may, at any time after the issue of the notification under sub-section (1) of that section [57-1], make such alterations in the Election Programme announced in that notification for the different stages of the election or may issue a fresh Election Programme as may, in its opinion to be recorded in writing, be necessary for the purposes of this Act.”
