BAR AGAINST DOUBLE MEMBERSHIP
…… Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad
Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan
Islamabad, the 19th March, 2008.- Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad, Secretary Election Commission of Pakistan has said that the Notifications of returned candidates from National Assembly of Pakistan as well as Provincial Assemblies of the Punjab, Sindh, NWFP and Balochistan have been issued by the Election Commission of Pakistan on the 1st March, 2008. Likewise, the Notifications of candidates elected on Reserved Seats for Women and Non-Muslims in the National/Provincial Assemblies have been issued by the ECP on the 6th March, 2008, which contain the names of candidates as per Priority Lists provided by the Political Parties for the purpose.
2. Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad further said that the Notifications of returned candidates from National/Provincial Assemblies seats contain the names of candidates returned to more than one seat in either House or in difference Houses. As such, he has invited attention of the Members elected on more than one seat to Article 223 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, 1973, which is reproduced hereunder for facility of reference:
“223. (1) No person shall, at the same time, be a member of-----
(a) both Houses; or
(b) a House and a Provincial Assembly; or
(c) the Assemblies of two or more Provinces; or
(d) a House or a Provincial Assembly in respect of more than one seat.
(2) Nothing in clause (1) shall prevent a person from being a candidate for two or more seats at the same body or in different bodies, but if he is elected to more than one seat he shall, within a period of thirty days after the declaration of the result for the last such seat, resign all but one of his seats, and if he does not so resign, all the seats to which he has been elected shall become vacant at the expiration of the said period of thirty days except the seat to which he has been elected last or, if he has been elected to more than one seat on the same day, the seat for election to which his nomination was filed last.
(3) A person to whom clause (2) applies shall not take a seat in either House or the Provincial Assembly to which he has been elected until he has resigned all but one of his seats.
(4) Subject to clause (2) if a member of either House or of a Provincial Assembly becomes a candidate for a second seat which, in accordance with clause (1), he may not hold concurrently with his first seat, then his first seat shall become vacant as soon as he is elected to the second seat.”