ISLAMABAD: The upper house of parliament erupted in clamour on Thursday as a controversial bill to appoint retired high court judges to poll tribunals to settle electoral disputes was passed despite severe protest by the opposition.

Senators from the PTI tore copies of the legislation and flung them in the air as they termed the new law “a conspiracy”.

The bill, already passed by the National Assembly, empowers the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to appoint retired high court judges as elections tribunals without the need to consult chief justices of the relevant apex courts.

Opposition Leader Syed Shibli Faraz started protesting even before Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar moved a motion for immediate consideration of the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2024.

Shibli claims new provision aimed at ‘managing poll tribunals’; Naek says retired judges will expedite disposal of electoral disputes

Mr Faraz pointed out that the PML-N was in power on Aug 5, 2023, when an amendment was introduced in Section 140 of the Elections Act 2017 to close the door for retired judges to be appointed as election tribunal.

Now, he wondered why the party felt the need to reverse its decision in less than a year, especially at a time when a number of petitions regarding general election disputes were pending before tribunals.

He regretted the strategy of legislation for “political interests” and called the new amendment “legislative seesaw”.

This would make the concept of legislation lose its meaning and dignity, Mr Faraz said, adding that the move was instead aimed at “preventing the truth from coming out by managing the tribunals”.

This all is being done as independent tribunals do not suit the government’s political interests, Mr Faraz claimed and lamented that the parliament was being used for this purpose which was “dangerous for the political, democratic and economic future of the country”.

He also slammed the ECP for organising what he called “the most controversial elections of the century” and added that the electoral watchdog “still had the guts” to find faults with PTI’s intra-party elections conducted in 2023 and 2024.

While responding to the opposition leader’s concerns, Law Minister Tarar recalled that when PTI was in power, it once bulldozed 53 bills in 45 minutes through the parliament.

He said PTI leader Qasim Suri held the office of National Assembly deputy speaker from 2018 to 2022 while a stay order remained in place against ECP’s decision to deseat him over alleged election rigging.

The minister also alleged that the PTI had introduced the Result Transmission System to steal the mandate.

He also said that the PTI had set a new example by “stealing” the Daska by-election in 2021.

This was in reference to the poll held on the then National Assembly seat NA-75 following the demise of PML-N lawmaker Sahibzada Syed Iftikharul Hassan Shah.

The exercise was marred by widespread rigging and violence as two people were killed while 20 presiding officers were “forcefully taken to some unknown places”.

‘Murder of democracy’

As Mr Tarar moved a motion to immediately consider the bill, the opposition raised slogans of “shame, shame”. PTI’s Parliamentary Leader, Syed Ali Zafar, opposed the bill, calling it “against the Constitution and independence of the judiciary”.

“If the bill is passed, it will threaten the integrity of the electoral process,” he lamented minutes before the government managed to get the law approved owing to its superior numeric strength.

Mr Zafar said the law was a “murder of democracy” and the intention behind it was to “keep the power assumed through massive rigging”.

“Let us expose this conspiracy. Enough is enough,” he said, adding that the floor of the Senate was being misused for this conspiracy.

Former Senate chairman and PPP Senator Farooq H. Naek challenged his colleague from PTI and said that Article 219 of the Constitution empowered the ECP and not high court chief justices to appoint election tribunals.

He said that high court judges were already overburdened and most of the time, don’t hear election disputes.

The appointment of retired judges would help in early disposal of election petitions and the amendment would benefit PTI members, the PPP leader added.

JUI-F Senator Kamran Murtaza said it was ECP’s power to appoint tribunals, but the commission itself was an accused in the case.

Currently, the question is of the government’s legitimacy, he said, adding that the house will pass a legislation without it being sent to the standing committee concerned.

“Everyone knows how easy it is to control retired judges,” he said, adding that such judges were never answerable to anyone.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2024