by Tariq Butt in The News, November 1, 2020
ISLAMABAD: The government has finally moved a constitutional amendment bill in the National Assembly to allow dual nationals to contest elections and to hold open Senate polls as opposed to the present system of secret ballots. The government has gone ahead with the move despite the fact that it lacks the requisite two-thirds majority in parliament.
According to the bill, an elected dual national has to renounce their foreign citizenship before taking oath as a federal or provincial legislator.
For this purpose, the 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill seeks to change Article 63(1)(c). The amendment says a person shall be disqualified from being elected or chosen as, and from being, a member of parliament, if he “in case of dual citizenship does not provide as a conclusive proof the certificate of renunciation of citizenship of a foreign state before taking oath.” It substitutes “if he ceases to be a citizen of Pakistan or acquires the citizenship of a foreign state.”
If the amendment is approved by parliament, there will be no bar on a dual national contesting elections but he has to give up his foreign citizenship before he is administered oath. A window has thus been provided to aspirants to retain their dual nationality and go back to the foreign country if they lose the election.
Presently, a dual nationality holder is automatically ousted from any electoral fight, and if he is found after his victory to have dual nationality, he is disqualified. A large number of federal and provincial lawmakers have already fallen victim to this provision.
Another amendment has been proposed to be made in Article 59(2) where the word “open” has been inserted for the Senate election.
The existing provision says election to fill seats in the Senate will be held in accordance with the system of proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote.
Currently, under Article 226, all elections under the Constitution, other than those of the prime minister and the chief minister, are held by secret ballot. The proposed amendment includes the Senate election among these exemptions.
To give effect to these proposals, similar changes have also been separately recommended in the Elections Act, 2017 in another bill that was also tabled in the National Assembly a few days back.
The statement of objects and reasons of the bills state that transparent Senate elections without manipulation, that have happened in the past, and the grant of voting rights to overseas Pakistanis are the long-standing demands of almost all the political parties including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
It said the federal cabinet, in its meeting held in January this year, constituted a committee to formulate recommendations regarding electoral reforms in order to ensure transparent, free and fair elections. Based on its proposals, the cabinet approved an electoral reforms package consisting of the 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill and the changes in the Elections Act. These bills broadly cover the Senate elections, reserved seats for women and minorities, delimitation of constituencies on the basis of enrolled voters instead of population, voting rights to overseas Pakistanis and the conditional participation of dual nationals in polls. https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/737470-constitutional-amendment-bill-dual-nationals-to-be-allowed-to-contest-election-conditionally?_ga=2.77723857.495337850.1604293470-574812933.1599111727
