Parliament Passes Elections (Amendment) Bills 2017

The Senate has passed the ‘Elections (Amendment) Bills 2017’.

The Bill seeks to incorporate and reaffirm the provisions of Articles 7B and 7C of the Conduced of General Elections Order, 2002 through addition of a new section 48A in the Election Act, 2017.

Zahid Ahmed said that if a person gets himself or herself enrolled as Muslim in the voter list, any other person can challenge this before the revising authority where he or she is required to sign the declaration of finality of Prophethood.

If the person refuses to sign the declaration then he shall be deemed as a non-Muslim and his vote will be expunged from the list for Muslim voters and be included in the non-Muslim list.

Khatam-e- Nabuwaat Clauses Restored in Original Form

Earlier, on Thursday evening The National Assembly passed the Elections (Amendment) Bill 2017, restoring clauses relating to finality of holy Prophet Muhammad (SAW) to their original form and making sections relating to it more effective.

Sections 7B and 7C of the Conduct of General Elections Order, 2002 were also restored to their original form via the bill.

Section 7B states that the status of Ahmedis remains as stated in the Constitution of Pakistan.

Section 7C states that if an enrolled voter’s belief in the finality of Prophet Muhammad’s (SAW) prophethood is contended, they shall have to sign a declaration reaffirming their belief, failing which their “name shall be deleted from the joint electoral rolls and added to a supplementary list of voters in the same electoral area as non-Muslim.”

Law Minister Zahid Hamid said that the new, amended bill will make the said sections more effective, adding that a separate voters list shall be created for Ahmadis as they will not be included in the list for Muslims. Khatm-e-Nabuwat declaration has also been restored to original form in both English and Urdu, he assured.

Prior to the approval of the amendment bill, Sheikh Rasheed’s microphone was disconnected as he was commenting on the importance of the issue and asked for the people behind the change to apprehended.