Overview of 42^nd Session of The National Assembly

5 bills were passed by the National Assembly in the sittings held on May 20, May 23, May 24 and May 26 including the Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2022 and the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022.

The Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2022 omitted the insertion made through the Elections (Third Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 which had mandated that seat of a returned candidate shall become vacant if oath is not taken within 60 days from the date of first sitting of a legislature or within 40 days after the commencement of the Elections (Third Amendment) Ordinance, 2021, which was published in official gazette on September 3, 2021.

The bill also amended section 94 regarding facilitation of right of overseas Pakistanis from their countries of residence and reverted almost to the language of the Elections Act, 2017 authorizing the Election Commission to conduct pilot projects for voting by Overseas Pakistanis in bye-elections to ascertain the technical efficacy, secrecy, security and financial feasibility of such voting and to share results with the Government who will lay the report before Parliament. The Elections (Second Amendment) Act, 2021 passed by the Parliament on November 17, 2021 had mandated the ECP to work with the technical assistance of NADRA or any other Authority to enable overseas Pakistanis, in prescribed manner, subject to secrecy and security, exercise their right to vote during general elections in Pakistan.

The Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2022 also amended Section 103 regarding the use of electronic voting machines and reverted the wording of the text almost to the Elections Act, 2017 which had mandated the ECP to conduct pilot projects for utilization of electronic voting machines and biometric verification system in bye- elections in addition to the existing manual procedures for voter verification, casting and counting of votes to assess the technical efficacy, secrecy, security and financial feasibility of the EVMs and biometric verification system and report to the Government who will lay findings to the Parliament. The Elections (Second Amendment) Act, 2021 had amended the earlier wordings of Section 103 given in the Elections Act, 2017 by mandating the ECP to procure and use EVMs in general elections in Pakistan in a prescribed manner, subject to secrecy and security.

In addition to providing exemptions to certain holders of public office, a mechanism for establishment of accountability courts and judges and their removal in order to curb delays in the trial procedure, recording of evidence through electronic audio-video devices and video-link and trial courts given the power to grant bail, the National Accountability (Second Amendment) Bill, 2022 says that upon completion of the non-extendable term of 3 years of the chair of NAB, deputy chair will continue in office until the appointment of the new chair.

Other 3 bills passed during the session included the following:

1. The Fiscal Responsibility and Debt Limitation (Amendment) Bill, 2022
2. The Pakistan Global Institute Act, 2022
3. The International Institute of Science, Arts and Technology Bill, 2022

Two (2) ordinances were laid during the session on May 9 and May 23. These included:

1. The General Statistics (Re-Organization) (Amendment) Ordinance, 2022 (Ordinance No. III of 2022)
2. The Election (Amendment) Ordinance, 2022 (Ord. No. 1 of 2022). The ordinance promulgated on February 21, 2022 by the outgoing PTI government removed the bar on elected legislators from visiting or addressing public meetings in constituencies during election campaign. However, it was laid in the National Assembly on May 23, 2022 by Mr. Murtaza Javed Abbasi, MNA and Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, supporting the amendment in the Elections Act, 2017 based on ‘persistent demand of elected representatives as well as overwhelming number of voters.’

No Ordinance was extended during the session.