The government passed the Election Act (Amendment) Bill by a majority vote in the National Assembly on Tuesday despite noisy protests from the Opposition led by the PTI.
The bill was voted on clause by clause as PTI MNAs raised slogans against the legislation. The PTI parliamentarians tore apart copies of the National Assembly agenda and threw them toward Speaker Ayaz Sadiq.
The bill proposes amendments to the Elections Act 2017 to bar lawmakers from changing their party.
The development comes after the legislation, tabled by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lawmaker Bilal Azhar Kiyani last month, secured subsequent approval by the NA Parliamentary Affairs Committee.
The NA panel had passed the bill with the support of eight members, four members opposed it, and Shahid Akhtar, a Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) MNA, abstained from voting.
The legislation, once it comes into effect following the approval from the Senate and the president’s assent, will prevent the individuals who contested the general election as independent candidates from changing their affidavit at a later stage to declare affiliation with any political party.
The bill, when it becomes a law, might reverse the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTII) return to the parliament after its “resurrection” in the assemblies following the Supreme Court’s July 12 ruling which had declared the Imran Khan-founded party eligible for reserved seats and recognized it as a parliamentary party — a status it had lost before the February 8 elections.
