Govt likely to table constitutional amendment bill in NA today

ISLAMABAD: The government's planned constitutional amendment bill is expected to be presented for voting in the National Assembly session on Sunday (today), Geo News reported citing sources.

According to the sources, a supplementary agenda is likely to be used to introduce the bill in the NA.

The NA and Senate sessions are set to commence at 4pm and 7pm, respectively.

As per the sources who spoke with Geo News on Saturday, the government has decided to establish a constitutional court and amend the Constitution’s Article 63-A, which focuses defection of legislators.

Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar has also echoed the same in the upper house of parliament the same day, saying the Constitutional Bill” was in line with the provisions of the Charter of Democracy (COD) endorsed by all the political parties including the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

It has also been proposed that the retirement age of superior judges should be increased by three years.

Currently, Article 179 of the Constitution envisages that a judge of the Supreme Court shall hold office until he attains the age of 65 years, whereas Article 195 of the Constitution says that a judge of a high court shall hold office until he attains the age of 62 years.

Furthermore, the government is also mulling revising the seniority principle in the appointment of the top judge, government's spokesperson on legal affairs Barrister Aqeel Malik confirmed while speaking on Geo News programme "Naya Pakistan on Friday.

At present, according to Article 175A of the Constitution, only the senior most judge of the Supreme Court is appointed as the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) on the basis of principle of seniority.

PML-N instructs its members to vote for amendment

On the other hand, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Parliamentary Leader in National Assembly Khawaja Asif and Parliamentary Leader in Senate Irfan-ul-Haque Siddiqui have written a letter to members of the respective houses.

They instructed all the PML-N leaders to ensure their attendance in the House and cast their vote in favour of the constitutional amendment as per the party decision.

The parliamentary leaders said it was mandatory for all the members of the parliament to ballot for the constitutional amendment.

"Hence, no member should refrain from voting," they instructed.

The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) too has directed its MPs to ensure their presence in the meeting and vote for the legislation, in accordance with the party leadership's instructions.

Meanwhile, the NA has issued a six-point agenda for the today’s session. Two calling attention notices other than questions are part of the agenda.

A motion of thanks for President Asif Ali Zardari’s address to the joint meeting of the parliament is included in the agenda. While, the members of NA’s raising points of order are also its part.

Moreover, a federal cabinet meeting presided by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will be held at the Parliament House on Sunday, where the draft for constitutional amendment will sail through, sources told Geo News.

Whereas, an in-camera meeting of the Special Committee of the National Assembly on Constitution and Parliamentary Affairs has also been called in the Parliament House.

The sources said the NA special body meeting presided by Syed Khursheed Shah would discuss the proposed constitutional amendment bill as well.

Following which, the NA Secretariat has issued a notice about changing the time.

'Required numbers to be achieved'

Speaking to the media at the Parliament House, Defence Minister Asif has said that he hopes that at least some consensus will be reached today on the constitutional amendments.

"It is not necessary that everything should be done in one day. [I] hope that there will be progress on some suggestions today," Asif remarked.

Firing a broadside at the PTI, the defence minister said that the former ruling party's attitude has not been right since the first day and that it was the same at present times as well.

"It is not in the PTI's DNA to respect the Constitution and work with everyone," he said.

Commenting on whether the government has the required support, the politician said: "God willing, the required numbers will be achieved."

Stressing that the amendments weren't aimed at giving an extension to Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa, Asif said that whatever reforms are brought in would be collective in nature and not individual-specific.

"The balance of the constitution has tilted towards the judiciary [and] supremacy of Parliament has been compromised which has to be fixed," he noted.

"We are hopeful that Maulana Fazlur Rehman will vote [in amendment's favour] and [figure of] 224 votes will be achieved," the politico said.

Defection clause

On the other hand, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate, Senator Shibli Faraz read the article 63-A of the Constitution in response to Senator Dar’s request of for the support of the legislation:

(1) If a member of a parliamentary party composed of a single political party in a House — (a) resigns from membership of his political party or joins another Parliamentary Party; or (b) votes or abstains from voting in the House contrary to any direction issued by the Parliamentary Party to which he belongs, in relations to (i) election of the Prime Minister or the Chief Minister; or (ii) a vote of confidence or a vote of no-confidence; or (iii) a Money Bill or a Constitution (Amendment) Bill;

“So it says very clearly and I rest my case,” he added.

Deputy PM Dar said this constitutional amendment did not imply earlier on the matter which was added after the 18th amendment as it was limited to three items.

“But we debated during the 18th Amendment Parliamentary Committee to add the fourth item as constitutional amendment was important to limit trampling of the party line as the party may move reference for disqualification of the said members,” he added.

For his part, Senator Farooq H Naik said the disqualification is applicable to the member on casting vote against the parliamentary party line.

“The supreme court has rewritten the Constitution in its wisdom in the Punjab government case and the review against it is pending and its violation of Article 63 as the Supreme Court cannot rewrite the Constitution and the Law but interpret the law The Court has taken over the power of the parliament and violation of the theory of separation of powers laid in the Constitution,” he said.