President Zardari signs bill into law preventing independents from changing parties

President Asif Ali Zardari has signed the Elections Act (Amendment Bill) 2024 into law, barring independent lawmakers from switching parties, ARY News reported.

The bill has been sent to the Senate Secretariat for the issuance of a gazette notification today, sources said.

The ratification comes a day after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) challenged the bill, which has retrospective amendments to the Elections Act 2017, in the Supreme Court.

PTI chairman Barrister Gohar filed a constitutional petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, requesting the court to declare the amendment act null and void, citing it as unconstitutional and illegal.

Read more: ‘Legislation being made to prevent PTI from getting reserved seats’

PTI has made the federal government and the Election Commission parties in the case. The party has also requested the court to immediately restrain the Election Commission from allocating reserved seats to other political parties.

PML-N lawmaker Bilal Azhar Kayani had introduced the bill in the NA a week ago, after which it had been rushed through the lower house’s Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs by 8-4 votes.

According to the bill, lawmakers cannot change the party after joining one within three days of winning the election. Furthermore, reserved seats cannot be allotted to a party, that did not win a single seat in the election.

Another amendment says that candidates should be considered independent lawmakers if they had not filed a declaration with the returning officer (RO) about their affiliation with a particular political party before seeking the allotment of a poll symbol.

The legislation follows after SC allotted reserved seats to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf.

A 13-member bench of the top court, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, ruled that the PTI is eligible for the allocation of reserved seats, dealing a major setback to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition.

Justice Mansoor Ali Shah announced the 8-5 majority verdict, setting aside the Peshawar High Court’s (PHC) order wherein it had upheld the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) decision denying the reserved seats to the SIC.