President Zardari Enacts Law to Bar Independent Lawmakers from Switching Parties

President Asif Ali Zardari has officially signed the Elections Act (Amendment Bill) 2024 into law, a significant legislative move that prevents independent lawmakers from switching political parties. This law, reported by ARY News, aims to enforce stricter party allegiance among elected officials.

The bill has now been forwarded to the Senate Secretariat for the issuance of a gazette notification, according to sources. This ratification follows the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)’s challenge to the bill in the Supreme Court just a day earlier. PTI chairman Barrister Gohar filed a constitutional petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution, seeking to have the amendment declared null and void on the grounds of being unconstitutional and illegal.

The PTI has named the federal government and the Election Commission as parties in the case, also requesting the court to immediately prevent the Election Commission from allocating reserved seats to other political parties.

Introduced by PML-N lawmaker Bilal Azhar Kayani in the National Assembly, the bill swiftly moved through the lower house’s Standing Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, passing with an 8-4 vote.

The new law stipulates that lawmakers cannot switch parties after joining one within three days of winning an election. Additionally, it prevents the allocation of reserved seats to a party that did not secure a single seat in the election. It also defines independent lawmakers as those who have not declared their party affiliation to the returning officer before seeking a poll symbol.

This legislative development follows the Supreme Court’s decision to allocate reserved seats to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, marking a significant judicial intervention that favored PTI and dealt a blow to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s ruling coalition. The 13-member bench, headed by Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, ruled with an 8-5 majority to set aside the Peshawar High Court’s order, which had upheld the Election Commission’s decision denying the reserved seats to the SIC.