Amendment about reserved seats challenged in LHC

Petitioner seeks to stop reallocation to other parties

LAHORE:

A writ petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court (LHC) challenging the Elections (Second Amendment) Act, 2024, requesting that the Act be declared unconstitutional and seeking to restrain the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) from allocating reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in the National Assembly and the Punjab Provincial Assembly to any political party other than the one originally entitled.

The petition was filed by Munir Ahmad through his legal counsel, Advocate Azhar Siddique.

In the petition, it is argued that the recent amendments introduced in the Election Act are not only ultra vires of the Constitution but also violate democratic principles and the fundamental rights of citizens.

Advocate Azhar Siddique contended that the amendment of Sections 66 and 104 of the Election Act, which are procedural laws, cannot have retrospective effect under established judicial and constitutional interpretations.

Therefore, the amendments are unconstitutional and should be struck down.

The petition further alleges that the actions of the ECP, the previous government, and the caretaker government have compromised the integrity of the electoral process, rendering it neither free nor fair.

The petition highlighted the alleged issuance of detention orders, registration of false cases, and biased trials against political figures, particularly mentioning the acquittal of Imran Khan in the Cypher and Iddat cases as evidence of the flawed legal proceedings.

The petition also referred to a judgment by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, which, according to the petitioner, affirms that a party's electoral symbol cannot be arbitrarily taken away. Based on this, the petitioner argues that the ECP's actions against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were driven by malafide intent, necessitating the declaration of the amendment as unconstitutional.