Three months

The Elections Commission has given three months’ notice to eleven political parties with less than 10,000 members, to bring the number up to the 10,000 mark.

Article 27 (b) of the Political Parties Act states that the commission should check the number of members of all registered political parties every six months, while Article 27 (c) states that three months’ notice should be given to all political parties that do not have 10,000 members, to make efforts to fulfil this requirement.

Director General of the Elections Commission Shuaib Yoosuf told Sun Online today that the notice was sent today to 11 out of 16 parties registered with the commission.

He said that the parties that do not take action as stated in the notice will be dissolved.

He did not mention the names of the eleven parties, or the number of members in those parties.

Chairperson of Islamic Democratic Party Ahmed Inaz told Sun Online that they received a three months’ notice letter from the Elections Commission today.

He referred to the Supreme Court ruling regarding dissolution of political parties, and said that the Elections Commission cannot send such a notice.

“The Elections Commission is confused. The Supreme Court said in its ruling that several sections of the Political Parties Act contradict the Constitution. Elections Commission does what it wants,” he said.

The Supreme Court has annulled Article 11 (a) of the Political Parties Act, which states that 10,000 membership forms should be submitted to register a political party.

In this ruling, the Supreme Court said that the Political Parties Act narrows the freedom to form political parties mentioned in Article 30 of the Constitution. Article 30 (a) of the Constitution states that every citizen has the right to establish and participate in the activities of political parties.

Shuaib, however, said that the notice sent to small parties has nothing to do with the Supreme Court ruling.

“The Supreme Court annulled the section of the Political Parties Act regarding the registration of political parties. The section that deals with the commission monitoring that registered parties meet the requirement of 10,000 members, was not annulled,” he said.