Amendments to NAB, election laws: Govt expected to table bills in joint session of Parliament

ISLAMABAD: The government is expected to bring the bills seeking amendments to the NAB laws and election laws — National Accountability (Amendment) Bill 2022 and Elections (Amendment) Bill 2022 — in the joint sitting of both the houses of parliament on Thursday after President Dr Arif Alvi returned them.

The bills were passed by the National Assembly and Senate separately while Alvi rejected them on the ground that he was not informed about the legislative proposal under Article 46 before they were tabled in parliament.

The National Assembly and Senate passed the National Accountability (Amendment) Bill 2022 and Elections (Amendment) Bill 2022 separately and it were sent to President Dr Arif Alvi for his approval but he returned both the bills for “reconsideration and detailed deliberation” to parliament and its committees under Clause(1)(b) of Article 75.

Earlier, the joint session of both the houses of the Parliament was scheduled to be held on Tuesday (June 7) but now the session has been rescheduled for June 9 (Thursday) as all the legislators of the treasury benches will be present for the budget session of the National Assembly, which is expected to be held on June 10 on Friday.

According to Article 75 of the Constitution, if the president returned any bill then it would be presented in a joint sitting of parliament and if the parliament passed the bill, then it would be sent to the president again for assent and if the president did not give assent within 10-days, then it would automatically be made an act of the parliament.

The Article 75 of the Constitution read as “75. (1) When a Bill is presented to the President for assent, the President shall, within 3 [ten] days,—

(a) assent to the Bill; or

(b) in the case of a Bill other than a Money Bill, return the Bill to the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) with a message requesting that the Bill or any specified provision thereof, be reconsidered and that any amendment specified in the message be considered.

4 [(2) When the President has returned a Bill to the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament), it shall be reconsidered by the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament) in joint sitting and, if it is again passed, with or without amendment, by the Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament), by the votes of the majority of the members of both Houses present and voting, it shall be deemed for the purposes of the Constitution to have been passed by both Houses and shall be presented to the President, and the President shall give his assent within ten days, failing which such assent shall be deemed to have been given.”