Committee finalises 18th Amendment Bill preamble

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

By Iqbal Choudhry

ISLAMABAD: The parliamentary committee on constitutional reforms – which has held 66 marathon sessions – has finalised the preamble of the 18th Amendment Bill and begun a final reading of the document, sources privy to committee proceedings told Daily Times on Sunday.

Meanwhile, only 11 of the total of 27 members participated in a session of the committee on Sunday. The sources said the Jamhoori Watan Party (JWP) had withdrawn its dissenting note on the participation of provinces in the Federal Shariat Court.

They said following criticism by the PML-N, the committee had proposed a limit of 11 percent of the total strength of the National Assembly for the federal cabinet.

Mian Raza Rabbani, chairman of the committee, told journalists after Sunday’s meeting that the committee would soon table the 18th Amendment Bill in parliament.

According to the sources, the preamble of the bill names rulers who introduced problematic amendments in the 1973 constitution.

“It’s a historical effort to take away incorrect amendments from the 1973 constitution and an attempt to restore the document in its original form,” said the sources.

While members are reluctant to announce a final date for the introduction of the bill in parliament, the committee has finalised draft recommendations for 80 amendments to 60 articles of the constitution.

The sources said the draft recommendations include a 60-page compendium with 14 dissenting notes. They said the ANP had proposed that FATA and PATA be made a separate province. And if that is not possible, the regions be made part of NWFP.

The sources said 14 dissenting notes had been filed by the PML-Q, the MQM, the ANP, Pakhtunkhawa Mili Awami Party, the Jamaat-e-Islami, the Balochistan National Party (BNP), the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), the Balochistan National Party-Awami and the Jamhuri Wattan Party (JWP).

The PML-Q’s dissenting notes are related to the concurrent list, with representatives of the forming ruling party calling for the abolishment of the list. The MQM’s note is about sales tax on goods, and the party has demanded the collection of the tax be handed over to provinces.

The JUI-F’s note is related to the procedure for the appointment of judges to the superior courts.