Senate clears way for Nawaz to return as PML-N president

ISLAMABAD: The otherwise beleaguered former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif Friday got a political boost as the opposition dominated Senate approved Elections Bill 2017, which will pave the way for Sharif’s return as PML-N president. Nawaz Sharif had to quit both as the Prime Minister of Pakistan as well as the president PML-N following his disqualification by the Supreme Court in the Panama case.

The Elections Bill 2017 as approved by the Senate on Friday, rejected opposition’s amendments which wanted to retain a clause of an existing law that disqualifies a person from being office-bearer of any political party in case of his disqualification as member of the parliament.

The disqualification of Nawaz Sharif as PML-N head was necessitated by clause 5(1) of Political Parties Order 2002, which with the enactment of Elections Bill 2017 will stand repealed. The Elections Bill 2017 as passed by the Senate does not include any  provision for barring a person from representing a political party for not being qualified to become an MP.

Joint opposition, which otherwise enjoys majority in the Senate, faced defeat at crucial juncture twice on Friday when two key amendments moved by PPP and PTI were rejected by the treasury senators, as ‘the Elections Bill 2017’ was passed amid opposition walk-out. 

The Elections Bill 2017, already adopted by the National Assembly, consisting of 241 clauses was moved by Law and Justice Minister Zahid Hamid, sailed through the House as Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P) and the lone BNP-Mengal Senator Jehanzeb Jamaldini extended timely support to the government. After garnering support of these two opposition parties, the government quite comfortably rejected key amendments by opposition Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).  

The first amendment to clause 203 of the bill by opposition leader in Senate Aitzaz Ahsan,  said that ‘any individual, who is not qualified to become a member of the parliament, should not be eligible to become a party's chairperson either’ – an apparent move to bar Nawaz Sharif from staging a comeback to mainstream politics as PML-N chief.

Without mentioning the name of the lawmaker, the minister said the proposal to abolish the earlier clause of Political Parties Ordinance 2002 introduced by the then military ruler Pervez Musharraf, was first floated by a PPP lawmaker in November 17, 2014. He saidthat the sole intention as to why the PPP wanted to retain the clause inserted by a military regime at this stage, was because the former prime minister Nawaz Sharif had been disqualified, and it may benefit him in one way or another after his disqualification in Panama leaks case. This prompted Aitzaz to hit back at Zahid Hamid to recall who was the law minister of the then president General Pervez Musharraf when the said the clause was inserted. But the law minister shrugged his shoulders and said he was not holding the law minister’s portfolio then. “Let us not throw our principles to the wind, my dear …you may not be in firing line at the moment but do think ahead,” Aitzaz drew his attention towards political landscape of the country where one can expect anything, any moment. 

However, after heated arguments between the law minister and the opposition leader, the opposition dominated upper house could not muster enough support to pass the amendment that helped the government to reject the amendment, during a second round of voting, with 38 votes against 37 in favour.

Another major amendment moved by PTI Senators Shibli Faraz, Azam Swati and Mohsin Aziz, wanted to  amend clause 60, which stated that wealth statement including assets and liabilities of his spouse, dependents and children as on the preceding 13th day of June ,be submitted, in the form prescribed under the Income Ordinance 2001.

But the law minister pressed for  amending  this  amendment after it was passed with 39 votes against 38 of the government, which earned the ire of chairman Senate, who then refused to preside over the session. Rabbani refused to chair the proceedings during consideration of clause 60 of the bill, when the law minister sought an amendment to the amendment after it was rejected by the opposition with 39 votes in favour 38 against it.

However, the law minister insisted that he was not given an opportunity to explain the clause to members and now he had enough support to pass an amendment to the amendment to restore clause 60 to its original form and annul the amendment carried by the House which was moved by Azam Swati of PTI.  Using his discretionary powers under rule 105, Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate, 2012, the chairman Senate did not give him permission to move the amendment. However, the minister kept on pursuing and took a plea that the amendment is very important and members do want to re-consider.

Despite his decision not to allow an amendment to an amendment, Rabbani bestowed his powers to the House to take decision, and the House voted against his decision, he then ‘walked out’ of the House, saying it was not appropriate for him to sit in the House for consideration of this bill in view of ethical standards of morality and parliamentary traditions.

The bill will now go back to the National Assembly for approval. If the lower house of parliament passes the bill with amendments, it will then become a law after formal assent by President Mamnoon Hussain.

Earlier, when the proceedings resumed after remaining suspended for about 45 minutes with deputy chairman Senate Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri in the chair, the government managed to get the amendment rejected that was moved by PTI senators by moving another amendment to the amendment in which Farooq Naek and Rubina Khalid of PPP supported the government. This prompted the PTI and PPP lawmakers to stage a token walkout. Later, PTI parliamentary leader in Senate Azam Swati also said that his party lawmakers are not interested in bringing any amendment to the bill, as the bill is being bulldozed by the government.

Both treasury and opposition senators moved amendments to 31 clauses, while  majority of those moved by opposition  were rejected. An amendment moved by JI’s Sirajul Haq and Hafiz Hamdullah of JUI-F in Section 9 of Clause 1 was dropped by the chair, saying it is out of the bill’s purview. The senators sought amendment to clause which states that ‘less than 10 per cent turnout of women voters in any constituency will make the election void’.

Another amendment by the duo to clause 27 was also rejected in which they said that an individual be allowed to cast his vote on a third address. The law minister said that all political parties had said that it was open ended and there should be a bar on it, adding there will be no bar for a person to cast his vote on permanent and temporary addresses while casting vote on a third address is not allowed.   

The PTI senators also objected to the attitude of treasury senators including railways minister Khawaja Saad Rafique, who kept roaming in the House to ensure the presence of his party senators to reject the amendments moved by the opposition during voting on the bill.

When Muzaffar Hussain Shah of PML-Functional, who was presiding over the sitting at that time, announced the bill stands passed, the jubilation of the treasury members especially Zahid Hamid and Khawaja Saad Rafique was worth seeing, who fell short of shouting “Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif slogans" – the popular slogan of PML-N after Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification – but they did hug each other to celebrate the passage of the bill. The 267th session was then prorogued sine die. 

Following his disqualification, former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had to recently resign even as President of the PML-N because of clause 5(1) of the Political Parties Order 2002. The said clause envisages: “Every citizen, not being in the service of Pakistan, shall have the right to form or be a member of a political party or be otherwise associated with a political party or take part in political activities or be elected as office-bearer of a political party: Provided that a person shall not be appointed or serve as an office-bearer of a political party if he is not qualified to be, or is disqualified from being, elected or chosen as a member of the Majlise-Shoora (Parliament) under Article 63 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan or under any other law for the time being in force.”

The Elections Bill 2017 was initially passed by the National Assembly but due to certain changes made in the bill by the Senate, the bill will now be again presented before the Lower House for enactment. Not only that the original Elections Bill 2017 as passed by the NA did not contain any bar on Nawaz Sharif from leading a party but to PML-N's comfort the Senate also rejected the proposal.

On Friday the PPP and the PTI moved separate amendments in the Electoral Reforms Bill to permanently bar any person, including even those disqualified under Articles 62 and 63, from being an office-bearer of a political party. However, despite the PML-N being a minority party in the Upper House it succeeded to get this major political space for their leader.

As reported by this newspaper on Friday, the PPP had submitted to Senate secretariat an amendment to add a proviso in clause 203 of Elections Bill 2017 for blocking Nawaz Sharif’s return. The Proviso read as: “Provided that the person shall not be appointed or serve as office-bearer of a political party if he is not qualified to be, or is disqualified from being, elected or chosen as Member of Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) under any law for the time being in force.”

The PTI also sought amendment in the same clause 203 of the Elections Bill 2017 and suggested Proviso, which reads as: Provided that a person shall not be appointed or serve as an office-bearer of a political party is not qualified to be, or is disqualified from being, elected or chosen as member of the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) under Article 63 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan or under any other law from the time being in force.”

However, the opposition could not make this amendment. Now for the PML-N it will be an easy task to get through the National Assembly the same bill securing Nawaz Sharif’s furture as PML-N president.