ISLAMABAD – President Mamnoon Hussain has promulgated an ordinance to amendthe Election Commission Act of 2017 providing for increasing the number ofbenches to hear and decide complaints and appeals related to the election.
The president signed the ordinance on July 26 and has been issued by theMinistry of Law and Justice on Friday.
Through this ordinance titled Election (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018, thepresident has amended section 6 of the Election Commission Act of 2017which earlier allowed the ECP to constitute a bench comprising three ormore members of the commission to dispose of the complaints and appeals.
However, as the ECP consist of only five members including the chairman,therefore only one bench could be formed putting the ECP under immenseburden to dispose of high number of cases through a single bench.
After this amendment, the ECP would be able to constitute a benchcomprising two or more members of the commission facilitating it toconstitute more than one benches to effectively dispose of election relatedappeals and complaints.