ISLAMABAD: There was a consensus among the participants at a consultative meeting on Tuesday that there should be some restrictions on candidates contesting elections on multiple seats in the elections as in other democracies of the world.

The participants comprising politicians, media representatives, civil society activists and academicians were speaking at the consultative forum organised by Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat) in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Pakistan.

Welcoming the participants, Chief Technical Adviser UNDP Pakistan Mary Cummins emphasised that her organisation’s role was to facilitate discussion and foster informed viewpoints on various issues while maintaining neutrality in domestic political affairs.

Senior Project Manager Pildat Faheem Ahmed Khan gave an overview of the current constitutional provisions and practices in Pakistan regarding multiple candidacies. He said the issue came to the light recently when former Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan contested the elections simultaneously from seven constituencies and then announced that he would not join the National Assembly even after winning all the seats.

He said Article 223(2) of the Constitution allowed a person to be a candidate from two or more seats at the same time. He quoted examples from the history when former prime ministers Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Nawaz Sharif and Imran Khan contested elections from multiple constituencies.

He said the countries like India and Bangladesh had limited the number of constituencies for one individual whereas the UK had put a complete ban on contesting the elections for more than one seat.

He said the incoming National Assembly may learn from the international practices and work towards developing a consensus on moving the constitutional amendment to this effect. He said Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) MNA Maulana Abdul Akbar Chitrali had introduced a bill in the last National Assembly seeking a ban on candidates to contest elections on more than two seats. The bill, he said, was approved by the house committee, but it could not be passed by the assembly before completion of its five-year term.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Senator Taj Haider said the discussion on the topic was of no consequence as it did not affect the common man. The issue at hand was the holding of free and fair elections and this should be the focus of all the stakeholders at the moment.

Mr Haider said it was the fundamental right of an individual to contest elections and should be respected. He was of the view that any amendment to Article 223 of the Constitution to limit the number of constituencies would be against the basic human rights of the individual.

Former PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar suggested that a political party leader or his nominee should have the right to contest elections from four constituencies -- one from each province just to demonstrate the unity of the federation.

“No other party leader should be allowed to contest from more than 2 constituencies,” he said.

Mr Babar said the makers of the constitution had debated the issue and agreed to this provision, but perhaps they didn’t know that it could be used with a “malafide intent.”

Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam (JUI-F) Senator Kamran Murtaza said a debate on the issue of elections on multiple constituencies should be held soon after the upcoming elections to enable the new parliament to debate and legislate on the issue. He suggested that the cost of contesting election on multiple seats should be recovered from the candidates or their political parties.

Defending his party leader’s decision to contest from seven constituencies, PTI’s Musaddiq Ghumman said Imran Khan had contested polls from multiple seats to prove that people supported him and his viewpoint. However, he said, the PTI was ready to discuss the issue. Referring to the criticism on the PTI’s intra-party elections, he said the office-bearers of all the parties always returned unopposed and there was no concept of a genuine elections in the parties. He suggested that the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should play a role to ensure proper intra-party elections of all the parties.

Nasarullah Randhawa of the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) said that no one should be allowed to contest on more than two constituencies at the cost of public exchequer. He suggested that no one should be allowed to contest elections on more than two seats.-

Published in Dawn, December 20th, 2023