ISLAMABAD: Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Barrister Gohar withdrew his petition to declare the Elections (Second Amendment) Act, 2024 ultra vires the constitution in its entirety and of no legal effect.
Advocate Salman Akram Raja, appearing on behalf of Barrister Gohar, told the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court that the SC Registrar’s Office had raised objections on the petition and his client likes to remove them first; therefore, he be allowed to withdraw it.
He submitted that the main issue is of the maintainability of the petition, adding the petition was filed before the president gave his approval.
Gohar Ali Khan, on August 7, 2024, filed a petition under Article 184(3) of the Constitution against the changes made in the Election Act, 2017, regarding the reserved seats. He prayed before the Supreme Court to declare the Elections (Second Amendment) Act, 2024, ultra vires the constitution in its entirety and of no legal effect.
It was further prayed that during the pendency of the instant petition, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) be restrained from allocating to any other political party reserved seats for women and non-Muslims in the National and the Provincial Assemblies that are proportionate to the entitlement of the PTI in term of the majority judgment of the Supreme Court.
Such reserved seats may be directed to be allowed to the PTI and its candidates whose names are contained in the lists filed before the ECP in accordance with the 12th July judgment.
Barrister Gohar submitted that the attempt has been made to give amendment retrospective effect, which is nonest, violative of the constitutional scheme and an assault on the democratic order.
Past and closed transactions that have taken place in terms of the constitution and the Election Act, 2017, prior to the enactment of the impugned amendment cannot be undone through the deemed retrospectively purportedly assigned to the Act. “Actions taken by the people and their chosen representative in exercise of their constitutional rights cannot be undone by the parliament through legislation. Such legislation suffers from malice in law.”
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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