Parliamentary panel awaits lesson on 20th amendment

Asks election commission secretary, attorney general to explain its features.

ISLAMABAD:

A parliamentary committee has invited the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) secretary and the attorney general to pore over the 20th amendment bill’s features at its next meeting.

The committee wanted a better understanding on the bill that seeks to legalise the actions of the chief election commissioner (CEC) at a time when the ECP structure did not conform to one drawn out under the 18th amendment. The meeting also comes a day after the Supreme Court (SC) came very close to disqualifying 23 sitting parliamentarians elected in the absence of a constitutionally mandated ECP.

The National Assembly’s standing committee on law and justice asked the attorney general and the election commission’s secretary to appear at its next meeting and enlighten the committee members in regard to the 20th amendment; however a date for the next meeting has not been fixed yet.

“We have asked the government to give us details of the Supreme Court orders referred in the statement of objects and reasons of the bill as the basis for moving the constitutional amendment,” said member of the committee and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) MNA Anusha Rehman Khan.

The statement of objects and reasons of the bill states that in a judgment made by the SC on April 25, 2011, directions were given to the election commission and the federation for constitution of the ECP in accordance with the amended provision of the Constitution through the 18th amendment.

“We cannot go for legislation unless we go through court judgments mentioned by the government.

“If there were clear instructions from the court, then why were by-elections held by the ECP after April 2011 till its completion,” Khan added.

The 20th amendment would provide legal cover to over 28 members of parliament and provincial assemblies who were elected after the passage of the 18th amendment in April 2010.

Religious Affairs Minister Khursheed Shah moved the bill suggesting an amendment in Article 219 of the Constitution that relates to “duties of the commission” through insertion of a new provision: “Provided always that till such time the members of the commission are appointed in accordance with Article 218 (2), the commissioner shall remain charged with the duties enumerated in paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) of this Article.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 21^st, 2012.