‘PML-N destroying last vestiges of ethics and morality’

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Friday strongly criticised the passage of Electoral Reforms Bill 2017 without the amendment suggested by opposition parties in Senate.

The Senate on Friday passed the Electoral Reforms Bill 2017 paving way for the former PM Nawaz Sharif to regain PML-N’s chairmanship.

Clause 203 of the bill allows a allows a person who is ineligible to become a member of the parliament to head a political party.

“PML-N destroying last vestiges of ethics and morality by removing clause in Electoral Reform Bill preventing a disqualified person heading a party,” Imran Khan wrote on Twitter.

He added that the PML-N is doing all this to simply resuscitate Nawaz Sharif after he has been found “guilty of corruption, money laundering, tax evasion and forgery”.

The bill was passed by a house session chaired by chairman Raza Rabbani. Amendment suggested by Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) lawmaker Aitzaz Ahsan was rejected.

Aitzaz, along with other opposition lawmakers, wanted to amend clause 203 of the bill. The clause allows a person who is ineligible to become a member of the parliament to head a political party.

At least 241 clauses of the bill were approved after voting in the upper house. 37 votes were cast in of the amendment in clause 203 while 38 votes opposed the crucial amendment.

Back in July, a five-judge Supreme Court bench disqualified then PM Nawaz Sharif in a unanimous verdict in the Panamagate case, thus cutting short his third stint in power.

Soon after the SC judgement, the PM House issued a terse statement saying that Nawaz Sharif, despite having reservations on the SC’s verdict, has stepped down from his post as the premier.

In August, Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) issued a notice to the party to name its new leader as Nawaz could not head the party according to Political Parties Order, 2002.

Sharif served as prime minister twice in the 1990s but failed to complete his tenure. In his second term he was ousted in October 1999 coup leading to a decade of exile. He won a third term as prime minister in 2013 general election.