Way cleared for Tarin to become senator

President Dr Arif Alvi has signed the Election Ordinance (Third Amendment) 2021, binding elected members to take oath within sixty days of the commencement of first sitting of the maiden session of legislature.

The amendment was made to Section 72 of the Election Act 2017. According to a statement issued on Wednesday, under the amendment, the members would have to take oath within forty days of the promulgation of the ordinance.

In case of failure to take oath within the mandatory period, seats of elected members to the national and provincial assemblies, the Senate and local bodies would become vacant.
After the ordinance comes into force, the parliamentary membership of Senator Ishaq Dar is likely to end.

PML-N leader and former finance minister Dar has not taken his oath of office after being elected to the Senate.

The government wants to get Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin elected as senator from Punjab after Dar is de-seated.

On April 16, Prime Minister Imran Khan, instead of appointing Tarin as his adviser on finance, appointed the banking wizard as the finance minister, for which, as per law, he needed to be a member of parliament within six months.

Tarin had replaced Hammad Azhar less than a month after the latter was appointed as finance minister.
Meanwhile, the president also signed the Pakistan Council of Research for Water Resources (Amendment) Ordinance 2021. The amendment was made under Section 16 of the Act 2007.

The council would make appointments for the better performance and discharge of duties of the institute. It also gets the power to hire services of advisers and experts on contract basis.

The president also approved a summary regarding appointment of Muhammad Saeedullah on deputation as judge of the Accountability Court Rawalpindi.

The president granted his consent on a summary regarding initiation of proceedings against Khawaja Shaukat Hussain, a grade 20 officer in National School of Public Policy, under Civil Servant (E&D) Rules 2020.

The president also approved resignation of Nazar Muhammad, assistant attorney general –II Quetta.

(With input from APP)