Pakistan bill limiting parliamentarians’ disqualification term passed

Islamabad: Pakistan’s National Assembly on Sunday gave a nod to the law limiting the disqualification of a parliamentarian to a maximum of five years, paving the way for those barred for life to run for public office.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader and former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) chief, former close ally and now an arch rival of ex-PM Imran Khan, Jahangir Khan Tareen, can both benefit from the move, as the Upper House (the Senate of Pakistan) has already passed the bill.

Since President Arif Alvi left for Hajj early Sunday, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani has taken charge as the Acting President and would not have any objection to sign the bill.

The house also approved another amendment to the law, allowing the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to announce the date for polls unilaterally, without the president’s approval.

The Supreme Court had disqualified both senior politicians in June and December 2017, respectively, after they were found involved in “corrupt practices.”

Earlier, the National Assembly of Pakistan, a day after introducing a number of changes in the Finance Bill 2023-24, passed the bill with majority.

The move is seen to secure the much-sought after deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as only five days are left in the deadline i.e. June 30 to secure the ninth review.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar had on Friday introduced some “fiscal tightening measures” that he had termed necessary to discipline the government spending, reform the pension scheme and broaden the tax net.

The revised budget aims for an additional PKR 215 billion (Dh 2.77 billion) in tax revenue alongside a cut of PKR 85 billion (Dh 1.09 billion) billion in public spending for the upcoming fiscal year.

However, according to the finance minister it would not affect the development allocations or the salaries and pensions of the government personnel.

The lawmakers passed the budget with a ratio of 70-2 as very few of them had turned up to participate in the voting.

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, his father Asif Ali Zardari and many senior leaders and parliamentarians including Opposition Leader Raja Riaz were among those who were not present.

While addressing the House before the count, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar defended the government’s move to implement various reforms in the pensions scheme.

According to these reforms, a government officer of Grade-17 and above can draw only one pension as per his or her choice.

“If one has a job on a contract then he will have to choose between the two pensions. This should’ve been corrected a long time ago,” the minister said. “It is a matter of principle that you have the right to one pension.”

In case of a pensioner’s death, his/her widowed spouse would receive the stipend. But once the spouse died, their dependents would get the pension for a period of 10 years after which it would end, he said.

“The pension bill went to PKR 800 billion (Dh 10.38 billion) which is a huge amount. It used to be half a few years ago,” Dar said.