ISLAMABAD The contentious Elections (Second Amendment) Bill, 2024 was approved by the Senate on Tuesday, only hours after it easily passed the National Assembly.
Senator Talal Chaudhry of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) introduced the amendment bill in the upper house of parliament, but senators from Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) fiercely opposed it.
Earlier in the day, the opposition benches fiercely opposed a bill that the NA had adopted, calling it “unconstitutional” and seeking changes to the Elections Act 2017 that would prohibit members from switching their party allegiance.
The measure was introduced by PML-N lawmaker Bilal Azhar Kiyani last month. It was adopted by the NA Parliamentary Affairs Committee with eight votes in favor and four votes against. Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) MNA Shahid Akhtar did not participate in the vote.The measure Chaudhary brought to ‘circumvent’ the Supreme Court’s verdict on reserved seats, which benefits the opposition party, was met by hooliganism from the PTI senators in the Senate.
The PTI was created by Imran Khan and was allowed to rejoin parliament after the top court on July 21 ruled that it was a political party and qualified for reserved seats. However, this decision also effectively cost the coalition government led by the PML-N its two-thirds majority in the legislature.
