National Assembly has accepted the amendments in Election Act 2017 to bring the Khatam-e-Naboowat oath and law into its original state. The Election Reforms Amendment Bill 2017 was presented by Federal Law Minister Zahid Hamid today.
Earlier, the parliamentarians and religous parties criticised the ruling party for changing the original words of oath Form-A which changed it into a declaration in place of affidavit.
Yesterday, National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq invited parliamentary leaders in his chamber to discuss the matter after the religious parties strongly protested the wordings of a clause of the recently approved law.
The meeting developed consensus that a fresh amendment bill be passed in the house to undo the changes in the oath paragraph of the Form A in the Election Bill 2017.
After the meeting, the speaker told the media that the technical or clerical mistake, or whatsoever it was, would be corrected and the declaration would be restored to its original form. He said the house business will be suspended on Thursday (today) and the changes will be made during the session.
After the meeting, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that his party had also suggested that Clause 203 of the Elections Act 2017 should be reverted to its original form as it was controversial and had been challenged in the courts.
To sell their claim that a whole logical phrase was replaced by another logical one out of a “clerical error”, Law Minister Zahid Hamid said that the government cannot even think of deleting this provision.
Zahid said that all the political parties were consulted comprehensively over the election bill before its approval by the Parliament, adding that the new law was aimed at strengthening the democratic system and bring economic stability.
He said that under the act, the Election Commission has been provided more powers to ensure conducting of free, fair and transparent elections.