ISLAMABAD: The National Party (NP) on Monday approached the Supreme Court, assailing the Elections Act 2017 in a different way — by seeking a declaration against certain restrictions imposed on political parties.

The law was earlier challenged in the Supreme Court because of a provision which has allowed a disqualified person to hold a party office.

NP’s Punjab president Wehdat Ayub Malik filed the petition through his counsel Barrister Raheel Kamran Sheikh requesting the Supreme Court to declare Section 202(2) of the Elections Act illegal. The clause requires a political party to submit a list of at least 2,000 members with their signatures or thumb impressions, along with copies of their national identity cards and proof of a deposit of Rs2,000 to the government treasury as the enlistment fee of a political party.

The petition also requested the apex court to declare as void and illegal Section 61(1) of the Act under which the security deposit for election to a National Assembly seat has been increased to Rs30,000 and the deposit for a provincial assembly to Rs20,000. The NP leader also challenged Section 61(4) of the law which has set the number of votes required to avoid forfeiture of the security deposit to one-fourth of the total votes.

The petition further stated that sections 132 (3)(b) and (c) of the law should be struck down since these had raised the ceiling of election expenditure for a candidate of a National Assembly seat to Rs4 million and that of a provincial assembly seat to Rs2m.

The petitioner requested the apex court to declare amendments made or proposed to the code of conduct for political parties and contesting candidates pursuant to the provisions of sections 202(2), 61(1) and (4) and 132 (3)(b) and (c) of the Elections Act as void and of no legal effect.

The petitioner asked the court to restrain the Election Commission of Pakistan from enforcing the provisions and amending the code of conduct for political parties and contesting candidates.

The petitioner argued that declaring the provisions illegal was necessary for the enforcement of fundamental rights of citizens embodied in Articles 17 and 25 of Chapter I, of Part II of the Constitution.

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2017