National Assembly passes Elections (Amendment) Bill 2018

ISLAMABAD: ‘The Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2018’ was passed in the National Assembly on Monday.

The bill moved by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Ali Muhammad Khan will amend the elections act, 2017.

The bill aimed at authorising the election commission to constitute a bench comprising three or more members of the commission to hear and decide complaints, applications, petitions or appeals.

The bill also authorises the commission to constitute more benches to effectively dispose of higher number of such complaints.

Read More: PPP leader says Election Bill 2017 in clash with Constitution

In October 2018, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader Latif Khosa had said one clause of the Election Bill 2017, that allowed an individual disqualified to be member of the parliament or to hold office of a political party, was clearly in clash with the Constitution of Pakistan.

“If a bill is in collision with any Article of the Constitution, it would be deemed invalid. And Articles 62 and 63 in the Constitution could not be amended through a bill,” he had said while talking to ARY News programme 11th Hour.

Speaking in the National Assembly floor on Monday, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) resolutions condemning Indian brutalities in Occupied Kashmir have endorsed the unanimous resolution passed by the Joint sitting of the parliament.

He said we have achieved our goal by abstaining the OIC session held in Abu Dhabi, which Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj could not get by going there.