The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court, challenging the Election Amendment Act introduced bar independent lawmakers from joining a political party after a stipulated period.
PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan filed a constitutional petition in the Supreme Court and prayed to the apex court to annul the Election Amendment Act.
An Article 184-3 application was filed through the mediation of Salman Akram Raja. The Federation and the Election Commission have been made parties in the petition.
Barrister Gohar Ali Khan requested the court to declare the newly passed amendments as “unconstitutional”.
“[…] The instant petition seeks to challenge, therefore, subversion of the democratic process made by the Impugned Act and is, therefore, a petition that raises questions of immense public importance with reference to the enforcement of the fundamental rights, conferred by the Constitution, in particular the rights guaranteed by Article 17,” read the petition.
“Past and closed transactions that have taken place in terms of the Constitution and the Elections Act, 2017 prior to the enactment of the Impugned Act cannot be undone through the deemed retrospectively purportedly assigned to the Impugned Act,” it added.
“The expression of the will of the people once made cannot be retrospectively subjected to restrictions that were non-existent at the time, and that are in any case unconstitutional. Actions taken by the people and their chosen representatives in the exercise of their constitutional rights cannot be undone by parliament through legislation. Such legislation suffers from malice in law.”
