ISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has another time approached the Supreme Court to are trying to find its steerage whether to comply with amended Election Act 2017 or its judgment on the matter of allocating reserved seats to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI). In its plea on Thursday, the pinnacle electoral authority noted the National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq’s letter mentioning that amendments were made to the Election Act after the pinnacle court docket’s verdict putting forward the competition celebration eligible for the reserved seats. It is really worth citing here that Speaker Sadiq had instructed the ECP in his letter that the apex court docket’s July 12 ruling was “incapable of implementation” after the amendments to Election Act 2017. The ECP sought SC’s advice on whether to prioritise the amended Election Act or the designated verdict to clear up the reserved seats’ row. It additionally knowledgeable the SC that denotified lawmakers had also approached to are seeking implementation of the amended regulation and the ECP carried out the court order to the extent of 39 Members of the National Assembly (MNAs). The amended act has been applied retroactively with changed legal guidelines relating to reserved seats, the ECP stated. It introduced that the courtroom gave clean verdicts that parliament’s knowledge couldn’t be reviewed, consequently, it might be a query mark if the Election Act is not implemented in view of the court docket orders. In his last week’s correspondence, the NA speaker urged the ECP to keep the supremacy of parliament with the aid of allocating reserved seats in accordance with the Election Act Amendment Bill. He mentioned “particular provisions” — amendments to Section sixty six and Section 104-A, which he stated, had been relevant for the ECP’s attention. In its modification to Section sixty six of the Elections Act, the invoice says that if a candidate does now not post a assertion of his affiliation with a political birthday party to the returning officer (RO) earlier than looking for allotment of the election symbol, they will be “deemed to be considered as an independent candidate and no longer a candidate of any political party”. Meanwhile, the amendment to Section 104 reads that the statement, consent or affidavit, through whatever name called, of an impartial back candidate once given for becoming a member of a political birthday celebration shall be irrevocable and cannot be substituted or withdrawn. “As the SC judgement was rendered based at the law previous to the enactment of the modification, the stated judgment is now incapable of implementation,” it stated, noting that it is the amended Election Act that shall prevail and supersede the previous ruling. Following his letter, Sadiq had also changed birthday celebration role in the lower house of the parliament in which 80 PTI MNAs had been shown as Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) members.
