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Senate Passes Elections Amendment Bill 2017

Islamabad (November 17, 2017): The Senate unanimously passed the Elections Amendment Bill 2017 on Friday, aimed at restoring the clauses pertaining to Khatm-i-Nabuwwat to their original form and make sections relating to the Ahmadi community more effective.

The Upper House session was held here with Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani in the chair.

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The bill had sailed through the National Assembly a day earlier, and is expected to be signed into law by President Mamnoon Hussain soon.

Law Minister Zahid Hamid tabled the Bill in the house, which was passed unanimously. The bill restores sections 7B and 7C of the Conduct of General Elections Order, 2002 were also restored to their original form through the bill.

Section 7B states that the status of Ahmadis remains as stated in the Constitution, whereas Section 7C says that if enrolled voters’ belief in the finality of prophethood of Muhammad (peace be upon him) is contended, they shall have to sign a declaration reaffirming their belief, failing which their “name shall be deleted from the joint electoral rolls and added to a supplementary list of voters in the same electoral area as non-Muslim.”

As the session of the Upper House of the Parliament resumed today, Law Minister Zahid Hamid tabled the Bill in the House.Tabling the bill in the House, the minister said that they were Muslims and believe in the finality of the Prophet (PBUH). He was referring to the passing of the second bill, the Elections Act 2017 Amendment, in the NA on Thursday related to Khatam-e-Nabuwat.

Senate Deputy Chairman Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, who hails from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F, said the Ahmadis’ status is the same as it was in the 1973 Constitution.

The house unanimously passed the Bill.  On Thursday, the NA also also passed the amendment related to the restoration of the Khatam-e-Nabuwat [finality of Prophethood] clause to its original form.Both the bills were presented before the assembly by Law Minister Zahid Hamid. They will now be presented in the Senate.According to the new delimitation, Punjab’s seat share in the National Assembly will decrease by nine seats, while Islamabad will get one more seat, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa five and Balochistan three more.

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