ISLAMABAD: Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani, Tuesday, declined the request of Senator-elect from Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Ishaq Dar to allow him take oath of the Senate membership ‘virtually’ — contending that the constitution did not have any such provision.
“In view of the aforesaid constitutional provisions, law and rules, your request cannot be acceded to and therefore the same is declined, accordingly,” reads the reply from Sanjrani to Dar.
“Under Article 65 of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan 1973 – and Rule 6 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Senate 2012, a member-elect has to take oath before the Senate itself and cannot do so virtually or before any individual like the high commissioner (in the rule-7 ibid, even the roll of member has to be signed by every member after making the oath before the Senate),” the letter reads.
“Indeed, Senate being part of Parliament (Article 50) and an elected house governed by its own rules and procedures cannot be substituted by an individual like the high commissioner. Article 255 is not applicable to the taking of an oath before the Senate,” it adds. The Article 255 (2) provides that where under the constitution, an oath is required to be made before a specified person and, for any reason, “it is impracticable for the oath to be made before that person, it may be made before such other person as may be nominated by that person.” On February 2, Dar, through a letter, approached the Senate chief to convey his “readiness and willingness to take the requisite oath as member of the Senate of Pakistan at the earliest.”
“Due to my prolonged illness and ongoing medical treatment within the United Kingdom, I am unable to return to Pakistan immediately to take the requisite oath in person; my latest medical report dated January 21, 2022 of Dr Gordan Grahovac, Consultant Neurosurgeon, Harley Street, London, is annexed herewith,” Dar stated.
“It is therefore requested that arrangements may please be made to enable me to take the required oath, virtually, through any electronic mode as you may deem convenient; the same being within the applicable legal framework and being used by the apex courts of Pakistan,” it adds.
In case, Dar said, for any reason, the requisite oath cannot be administered virtually, the constitutional mechanism provided under Article 255 of the constitution be adopted and the “high commissioner of Pakistan in London, United Kingdom, or any other person in the high commission of Pakistan, London, may be nominated to administer my oath in London.”
Dar, in the letter, stated that the “newly inserted provision in 2021, which recently amended the act with respect to taking of oath within a stipulated time period, is not applicable to my election as member of the Senate pursuant to the Senate elections held on March 3, 2018.”
It merits mentioning here that President Arif Alvi, on August 31 last year, promulgated the Elections (Third Amendment) Ordinance 2021.
This ordinance provides that the seat of a returned candidate shall become vacant, if he/ she wilfully does not take oath within 60 days from the date of the first sitting of National Assembly or Senate or within 40 days of the commencement of the Elections (Third Amendment) Ordinance 2021.
The federal government had reportedly mulled over having Dar de-seated from Senate, using this ordinance, to create space for Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin but discarded this plan keeping in view that Dar’s case was pending in the Supreme Court.
Tarin was elected as senator in December last year on Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ticket on Khyber Pakhtunkhwa general seat vacated by PTI’s Ayub Afridi.
Dar was elected as Senator on a technocrat seat in Senate elections held on March 03, 2018.
Also in March 2018, Nawazish Pirzada from Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) challenged Dar’s election to Senate in the Supreme Court on the grounds that he was declared as an absconder by an accountability court in December 2017 in a corruption reference filed against him by National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Dar is in London since October 2017.
The SC suspended the notification of Dar’s election as Senator in May 2018. Consequently, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) suspended the notification of his Senate membership. In December last year, the apex court restored his membership of the upper house of Parliament following which the electoral body withdrew its notification of suspension of Dar’s Senate membership.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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