President Zardari approves Election Act Amendment Bill 2024

Islamabad: President Asif Ali Zardari approved the Election Act Amendment Bill 2024, after which the Bill has become a regular Election Act.

According to the details, Zardari signed the Election Act Amendment Bill 2024 last night, after which the bill was sent to the Senate Secretariat for gazette notification.

The Gazette Notification of the Election Commission Act will be issued today.

It is pertinent to note that on August 6, the Election Act Amendment Bill was passed by a majority vote in the National Assembly amid noise and commotion by the opposition.

The bill was jointly presented by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s (PML-N) Bilal Azhar Kayani and Zaib Jaffar. The bill to amend the Election Act 2017 was approved by the National Assembly on behalf of the government members.

On the same day, after the National Assembly, the Senate also passed the Election Act Amendment Bill with a majority vote amid noise and commotion by the opposition.

The Elections Act Amendment Bill, 2017, known as the Elections (Second Amendment) Act, 2024, introduced the first amendment to section 66 and the second amendment to section 104.

According to the First Amendment, the declaration of affiliation by a political party cannot be changed, while the Second Amendment states that a party which has not given a list of reserved seats cannot be allotted with.

According to the amendment bill, a candidate who does not submit the party certificate before obtaining the election symbol will be considered independent. In case of not submitting the list of reserved seats within the prescribed period, no political party will be entitled to them.

The amendment bill said that any candidate's declaration of affiliation to a political party once in the prescribed period shall be irrevocable.

It is pertinent to note that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) challenged the Election Amendment Act in the Supreme Court yesterday.

Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, through the mediation of Salman Akram Raja, filed an Article 184/3 petition in the Supreme Court, in which the Federation and the Election Commission have been made parties.