Islamabad - The government yesterday defused the volatile situation by announcing correcting the “clerical mistake”, affecting the Khatm-e-Nabuwat declaration, in recently passed election bill.
National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq invited parliamentary leaders in his chamber to discuss the matter on Wednesday 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.
The speaker’s initiative was in response to uproar of parliamentarians who started grilling the government right after the passing the bill on Monday. They were protesting against changes made in the newly passed declaration form which every candidate has to submit at the time of elections.
In the declaration section of the new bill the candidate must declare: “I believe in the absolute and unqualified finality of the Prophet-hood of Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him),the last of the Prophets and that I am not the follower of anyone who claims to be a prophet in any sense of the word or of any description whatsoever after Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), and that I do not recognise such a claimant to be prophet or a religious reformer, nor do I belong to the Qadiani group or the Lahori group or call myself an Ahmadi”.
The parliamentarians and religious scholars protested on the use of words “I believe” instead of “I solemnly swear”, as they were in the old version.
The situation became intense when opposition taking advantage of the situation opened a media front. Religious party leaders demanded restoring the declaration to its original format as it was passed in 1974, arguing that it was adopted after careful deliberations from the religious scholars throughout the country.
The opposition had been grilling the PML-N on the contents of the bill, whereas the fact is that the lawmakers from opposition benches and religious parties also signed the bill.
The parliamentary committee on election reforms approved the electoral reforms bill in July this year, under the chair of Finance Minister Ishaq Dar.
The parliamentary committee conducted 90 sessions, and the bill was drafted after taking advice from the Election Commission of Pakistan and recommendations from political parties.
Elahi, Fazl on same page about Khatam-e-Nubuwat
Online adds:
Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl) and Pakistan Muslim League-Qaid on Wednesday agreed that no compromise will be made on Khatam-e-Nubuwat issue.
A meeting was held between JUI-F chief Fazlur Rehman and PML-Q leader Chaudhry Parvez Elahi at local hotel in Makkah.
They exchanged views on the prevailing political situation in the country, and the matter of change in the oath of the Khatam-e-Nubuwat. They described the efforts of their deceased elders - Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi and Mufti Mahmood - regarding Khatam-e-Nubuwat as beacon lights.
NA passes bill today to undo changes
Atif Khan