Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said on Saturday that the proposed 27th Constitutional Amendment would be presented in the upper house of Parliament.
Speaking to the media in Islamabad, the minister said a meeting of the federal cabinet was called for today, adding that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif chaired the meeting via video link from Baku.
He said that the cabinet was briefed that the bill for the 27th Constitutional Amendment would be presented in the Senate today.
“This bill will be presented in the Senate of Pakistan, and then it was desire to refer it to a joint committee was expressed so that members of the Senate and National Assembly law and justice committees … so that a satisfactory conversation can be held on the bill’s provisions,” he said.
The minister said that in recent days, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had held meetings with the government’s allies.
“After all this detailed consultation, the points on which consensus has been reached concern the old promise in the Charter of Democracy regarding the formation of a constitutional court,” he said.
“Now, the suggestion of a separate federal constitution court will be referred to Parliament in the form of a bill, and Parliament will decide on it after a debate,” he said.
The minister also noted that there had been much debate about the transfer of judges. “It has been proposed in the bill that the transfer of judges be handled by the Judicial Commission of Pakistan … it has been added in the bill that the chief justices of both high courts from which a judge wishes to transfer to would be included in the consultations.”
He further said that in the past, the Senate election process in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was affected due to court proceedings and certain decisions made by the provincial assembly.
He noted that the terms for the upper house of Parliament was six years, adding that it could not be dissolved as compared to the National Assembly.
The legislation is now likely to be introduced in the Senate, after which it will be moved before the National Assembly. The proposed key features have been heavily criticised by lawyers and politicians, who termed them an attempt to revoke provincial rights granted in the 18th Amendment.
The federal cabinet meeting was originally scheduled for Friday, but was postponed due to PM Shehbaz’s commitments in Azerbaijan, sources in the PM Office said. However, some were of the opinion that the meeting was put off due to a lack of consensus between the ruling PML-N and the PPP over the Amendment.
PM Shehbaz held consultations with multiple ruling allies on Thursday, meeting with the top leadership of the PML-Q, the Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP), the PML-Q, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), the Balochistan Awami Party, the Awami National Party (ANP) and PML-Zia president Ijazul Haq.
The MQM-P presented its own version of additions to the 27th Amendment, calling for strong and autonomous LGs across the country. The Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam–Fazl (JUI-F), which met with an MQM-P delegation on Thursday, has opposed any amendment that would reduce the powers granted to the provinces under the 18th Amendment.
The PPP has said it would support amendments to Article 243, which defines the powers of the armed forces, but has rejected proposals related to provinces’ shares under the National Finance Commission (NFC) award and any rollback of the 18th Amendment.
The PPP’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) yesterday decided that it “agrees in principle with the idea that constitutional courts should be formed” — a proposal also mulled during the 26th Amendment discussions last year.
The opposition PTI has criticised most of the tweaks, terming the proposed amendment an “attack“ on the Parliament. PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said earlier this week that it would be inappropriate to claw back population and education from the provinces.
On the other hand, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Dr Tariq Fazal Chaudhry on Wednesday assured the National Assembly that the 18th Amendment would not be rolled back through the 27th Amendment.
While there remains secrecy over the specifics of the tweaks, among the main subjects are changes related to the judiciary, including the formation of a Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) and the transfer of judges.
On November 3, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari revealed that the government’s proposed amendments included “setting up [of] constitutional court, executive magistrates, transfer of judges, removal of protection of provincial share in NFC, amending article 243, return of education and population planning to the federation and breaking [the] deadlock on appointment of ECP”.
More to follow
