ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was able to convince its partners in the Centre to pass a bill giving the caretaker government more power.
This happened at a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Electoral Reforms, where PML-N’s Sardar Ayaz Sadiq was in charge. The meeting was about Article 230, which talks about what a caretaker government does.
Sources said that the planned bill would give the caretaker government unlimited power. The allied parties were against this, so the matter was put off.
After today’s discussion, the PML-N decided to make small changes to the bill that would let the interim government only work with bilateral donors and multilateral organisations.
Sources say that the new changes give the caretaker regime the powers in Clause 2A of Section 230. However, the caretaker regime will not be able to make new deals.
The sources also said that the caretaker government “can use its power in programmes that are already going on.”
The bill has now been given to the parliament’s joint sitting for approval.
Before the house voted on the electoral reforms bill, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Ali Zafar asked the house again to reject the section in question because it could not be upheld.
Zafar of the PTI told the house, “If you don’t reject it, the Supreme Court will.”
The head of the PTI said that “watering down” the bill wasn’t enough because it was “illegal and against the Constitution.”
