attempted to scrap because it provided for a disqualified person to hold an office of a political party, won approval of the National Assembly for the second time in a span of less than a month. No law has ever been passed twice like this. First, it was approved during the passage of the entire Elections Act. Now it is the second time when opposition’s amendment was dismissed by it.
The approach of the main sponsor of the move, the PPP, was particularly reprehensible because it was its founding father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, who had first excised this law made by Ayub Khan during the seventies. By moving the instant amendment, the PPP reneged on what its supreme leader had done.
After the abject failure of the opposition parties to deprive Nawaz Sharif of the slot of the PML-N president, the only option left before them to remove it from the Elections Act is the forum of the apex court, where section 203 has already been challenged. Initial hearing on this plea is scheduled for Wednesday.
Regardless of the judgment of the top court on this clause, the National Assembly has spoken twice. In fact, the prime motive behind the approval of this amendment in the Senate by the opposition parties was to tell the Supreme Court that the Upper House wanted to get rid of it and resolutely moved against it.
However, the move has been spiked by the National Assembly even before the start of the court hearing. Former Prime Minister Mir Zafarullah Jamali was just a lone ranger, who, having been elected on the PML-N ticket in the 2013 elections, voted against his party for unexplained reasons. But on the other side, Rajab Baloch, who is undergoing extensive cancer treatment, made it to the National Assembly to support his leader and party. More than a dozen PML-N MPs including federal ministers, who did not turn up, were either busy in other matters or happened to be abroad for different reasons.
Like previous national assemblies, the present Lower House of Parliament has always been hit by lack of quorum, causing enormous embarrassment to the PML-N. But everyone reached the debating hall to mark his/her presence and show support to their leader, who is facing hardships from different fronts.
The enchanting beauty of the episode was that all what happened was an essential part of the parliamentary democracy. Everywhere in the world the opposition tries to create difficult situations for the government inside the parliament in an established parliamentary, legal and constitutional way. And the ruling party tries to blunt such moves. The highly charged speeches delivered during the debate on the amendment added further grace to the democratic norms and traditions.
Despite knowing that it can’t outclass the treasury on the force of its numerical strength, all the opposition parties attempted to take advantage of the engineered speculation that the PML-N was confronted with a rebellion, but failed to outshine their opponent.
There is no gainsaying that the defeat of the government during voting on this amendment would have spawned extremely serious and risky consequences for Nawaz Sharif as well as the PML-N. The former premier would have become exceedingly beleaguered and harassed in case of the approval of the move.
Even during voting on this crucial amendment, PTI Chairman Imran Khan absented himself from the National Assembly. Without a doubt, he considers it below his status and dignity to show up in the Lower House.