Election Commission of Pakistan is implementing Election Act 2017 as per which all parties are required to submit list of 2,000 members, their CNIC copies and Rs. 200,000 otherwise they will be delisted.
According to the new act no party can be registered by ECP without having at least 2,000 members. It is said that out of the 352 registered political parties only a few dozen will be able to fulfill this criteria.
But before the delisting process some political parties approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) which issued stay orders but now the stay order has expired and it is expected that ECP will renew its reforms.
In 2013 election there were 270 registered political parties but 159 didn’t take part in elections while 16 parties received less than 100 votes.
It is also said that some political parties are using their registration as a tool to send people to foreign countries to seek asylum. Then issue membership on letter heads and by bribing police they get a FIR against that particular individual, then they use the FIR & membership of the political party to seek asylum.
Election Commission is aiming that the new reforms will pave the way for free and fair elections in 2018.