Islamabad
\nA joint session of the Parliament on Wednesday passed amendments to the Election Act 2017, granting the caretaker government powers to take actions or decisions regarding existing bilateral or multilateral agreements and projects.
\nThe Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was presented by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Murtaza Javed Abbasi.
\nThe PML-N had on Sunday announced that an amendment was being introduced to empower the interim setup to have powers similar to that of an elected government.
\n\u201cThe interim setup will not be confined to day-to-day affairs of the government till elections are held. An amendment is being brought (to the Constitution) to empower the caretaker setup to take important decisions like an elected government does,\u201d PML-N supreme leader\u2019s spokesperson Muhammad Zubair earlier told Dawn.
\nThe amendment is among several others being proposed to the elections laws ahead of polls scheduled to take place later this year.
\nHowever, during a joint session of the Parliament a day earlier, objections were raised to the amendment after which it was deferred for a day.
\nWhen the session resumed today, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said the government had prepared a new draft of the said amendment after concerns were raised by the allies and opposition members.
\n\u201cApart from Section 230, there was 100 per cent consensus on all the other amendments,\u201d he said.
\nTarar clarified that while it was being said that the amendment to Section 230 was made a day earlier, \u201cthe truth is that the changes were proposed five days back via WhatsApp and email\u201d to members of the Parliamen\u00adtary Committee on Electoral Reforms.
\n\u201cBut the committee was called again today and examined the amendment to Section 230 again,\u201d he said, adding that the members of the committee deemed the changes \u201cunnecessary\u201d.
\nTarar further said that a new draft of the amendment, to simplify Section 230, had been shared by Commerce Minister Naveed Qamar. \u201cRest of the amendments that have been circulated are those on which there is 100pc consensus.\u201d
\nThe draft of the law, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com, said: \u201cProvided that sub-sections 1 and 2 shall not apply where the caretaker government has to take actions or decisions regarding existing bilateral or multilateral agreements or the projects already initiated under the Public Private Partnership Authority Act 2017, the Inter-Governmental Commercial Transactions Act 2022, and the Privatisation Commission Ordinance 2000.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad A joint session of the Parliament on Wednesday passed amendments to the Election Act 2017, granting the caretaker government powers to take actions or decisions regarding existing bilateral or multilateral agreements and projects. The Elections (Amendment) Bill, 2023, was presented by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Murtaza Javed Abbasi. The PML-N had on Sunday announced that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345669,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-345640","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-news"},"yoast_head":"\n