Article-224 is ray of hope for reserved seats of PTI
THE Election Commission of Pakistan differed the notification of PTI members of the Punjab Assembly against the five reserved seats that fell vacant following the de-seating of 25 of the party’s MPAs over defection, until the by poll on the 20 General seats scheduled for 17 July ,the election commission of Pakistan came to the conclusion that the scheme of proportional representation provided in the constitution is mandatory for filling of vacant reserved seats for women and Non Muslims, keeping in view the spirit of Article 106 of the constitution, ECP deems it appropriate to defer the filling of vacant reserved seats till the outcome of by elections on 20 General seats in the provincial assembly of Punjab.
The point of view of ECP is that individual seat falling vacant on the account of death, resignation or disqualification of a member is filled by the next member as per the party list.
The subject case is of the first impression because 20 members from general seats of a parliamentary party were disqualified and de-seated under Article 63A of the constitution, which has sufficiently reduced the strength of general seats of that party in the Punjab Assembly.
As per Article 224, sub section 6, when a seat reserved for women or Non-Muslims in the National Assembly or a Provincial Assembly falls vacant, it shall be filled by the next person in order precedence from the list of candidates to be submitted to the ECP by the party whose members has vacated the seat.
Once the reserved seats are allocated on the basis of general seats, a party has won; it cannot be altered, changed or amended later.
It appears from recent developments that the system is ready for a general election, even if a timeline for the polls remains moot.
The situation has significantly changed from just weeks ago when several legal and technical challenges had clouded the prospects of elections being held anytime soon.
When the PTI government had un-constitutionally dissolved the National Assembly and called an early election, the ECP’s spoke person had told that the ECP was in no position to conduct elections within 90 days due to legal and procedural issues.
The officials had estimated at the time that it would take at least seven months for the ECP to be ready.
Fresh delimitation of constituencies, procurement of election materials, arrangement for ballot papers, appointment and training of polling staff, repeal of laws pertaining to the use of electronic voting machines and overseas Pakistanis’ voting rights and remove the key hurdles before elections could be held.
It is interesting to note that most of these hurdles are being eliminated in the near future. A bill amending the law pertaining to EVMs and overseas Pakistanis’ voting rights awaits final presidential assent.
Even if President Arif Alvi refuses to sign it, which he most likely will for political reasons, a joint session of parliament can still be called to enact it as law.
The president has, meanwhile, assented to the appointment of the Punjab and KP members of the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Similarly, the Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan administered the oath of both members of ECP on 1st June.
While CEC announced that the ECP is always ready for elections, following a report nearly two weeks ago that the delimitation of National Assembly and Provincial Assembly constituencies, based on the 2017 census results, would be complete by mid of August.
Electoral rolls are also being revised, and a summary outlining expenditure for the next election has been presented in the National Assembly.
Imran government had agreed that fresh elections would be held after digital census which has to be conducted in October 2022 and end till December 2022 and on the basis of digital census the Election Commission of Pakistan will start new delimitation of constituencies of National and Provincial Assembly and finally, list of delimitation will be announced till March 2023.
Meanwhile, the government continues to insist, there are here to stay and steer the ship out of a stormy political and economic environment.
The President of Pakistan has returned the Election Bill using power under Article 75 of the constitution.
Article 75 states when a Bill is presented to the President for assent, the President shall within 10 days, assent the Bill or in the case of a Bill other than a money bill, return the bill to Parliament with a message requesting that the bill or any specified provision thereof, reconsidered and that any amendment specified in the message be considered.
Dr Arif Alvi, who represented the PTI in the parliamentary committee on electoral reforms which had finalized the Electoral Act 2017, said the overseas Pakistani, have been deprived of voting rights despite the fact that various commitments had been made to them by different Prime Ministers and Presidents during their overseas trips since 1990s.
In order to counter the President’s move, the government is considering getting the two bills passed in joint-sitting of Parliament scheduled to be held soon under Article 75, Sub-section 2 of the constitution.
—The writer is former Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan and currently Chairman National Democratic Foundation.
