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ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Muslim League-N, which has been threatening to block the 20th Amendment validating by-elections, provided an opportunity on Monday to the government to get the law passed rather smoothly through a standing committee of the National Assembly when its members stayed away from the proceedings.

The much-awaited accountability law replacing the National Accountability Bureau with a powerful accountability commission has been pending before the same committee for about three years for lack of agreement between the government and opposition.

The government is expected to get the 20th amendment bill passed through a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly that has already been summoned by President Asif Ali Zardari to meet on Feb 1.

Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Shah had tabled the bill in the National Assembly on Jan 18 to save the legislators elected in by-polls from disqualification by the Supreme Court.

The main objective of the bill is to rectify a constitutional wrong which came to light when during the hearing of a petition filed by Pakistan Tehrik-i-Insaaf chief Imran Khan, the Supreme Court questioned the legal status of members of parliament and provincial assemblies elected in by-polls during the time when the government was in the process of appointing four members of the election commission which was mandatory under the 18th Amendment.

Through the bill, the government has proposed an amendment to Article 219 of the Constitution providing 'legal cover' to the election of some two dozen members of the National Assembly, Senate and provincial assemblies, including Finance Minister Hafeez Shaikh and Petroleum Minister Dr Asim Hussain.

The bill authorises the chief election commissioner to hold by-election even if the commission is incomplete.

During hearing of the petition last year, the three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry had observed that the court could have passed an appropriate order but deliberately showed restraint with an understanding that the government and the ECP would find a way out to rectify the situation.

Advocate Hamid Khan, who is representing Imran Khan, had stated that the crisis could not be resolved without amending the Constitution.

The government wants to get the bill passed from the National Assembly before the Supreme Court resumes hearing of the case on Feb 6. Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan had warned last week that the PML-N would block the passage of the bill even if more than two dozens legislators elected in by-elections were disqualified if the government failed to fulfil requirements of an autonomous election commission.

The standing committee headed by PPP's Nasim Akhtar Chaudhry considered various amendments proposed by the election commission to the Electoral Rolls Act, 1974, the Senate (Election) Act, 1975, the Representation of People Act, 1976 and the Political Parties Order, 2002, to ensure free and fair elections.

It also recommended to the government to withdraw the Legal Practitioners and Bar Council (Amendment) Bill, 2008, on the advice of the attorney general of Pakistan and the law ministry and to restore the original act of 1973.

Syed Naveed Qamar, Abdul Ghafoor Chaudhry, Mohammad Ijaz Virk, Syed Zafar Ali Shah, Riaz Fatyana and Syed Iqbal Qadri attended the meeting.