ISLAMABAD: After two weeks of haggling and amid other battles being fought outside parliament, the government and opposition joined hands on Tuesday to unanimously push through the National Assembly a revised constitution amendment that provides for a strong Election Commission, a pre-election interim set-up and restoration of 28 suspended federal and provincial lawmakers.
Both Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani and opposition leader Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan called the vote, which finished late in the night, as one that will strengthen democracy and a message to repudiate unspecified forces that they said sought to defame parliament or scuttle the amendment, which gives the Election Commission the final say in appointing an interim set-up at the federal and provincial levels before general elections if politicians and a bipartisan parliamentary committee fail to reach a consensus and prescribes five-year tenures for four members of the commission like the chief election commissioner.
The government’s original Constitution (Twentieth Amendment) Bill had sought only to validate by-elections to 28 seats of both houses of parliament and provincial assemblies that were challenged before the Supreme Court for having been held when the Election Commission was not complete as provided by the Eighteenth Amendment passed in 2010.
But the new 11-caluse bill, which replaced the first two-clause draft, also specifies tenures of Election Commission members and incorporates a procedure for achieving a consensus between a prime minister — or a chief minister in the case of a province — and opposition leader for naming an interim prime minister or chief minister and, in the event of a difference between the two, for reference of the issue to a bipartisan parliamentary committee, whose failure to reach unanimity will send the matter to the Election Commission for a final decision.
This, the prime minister said in a speech after the vote, would strengthen democracy and ensure free, fair and transparent elections in the future as well as guard against the appointment of any “imported prime minister” after what “we all suffered” in the past due to lacunas in the previous systems. He said this and the previous two unanimous amendments to the constitution also showed that politicians were one on core national causes and issues.
But despite the landmark nature of the legislation, about 80 members of the 342-seat house — whose actual strength was cut down by nine suspensions by the Supreme Court on Feb 6 and some vacancies — were absent from the vote before the house was prorogued after a 14-day session with the maximum count in support of any clause of the bill reaching 251-0, though the final vote came further down to 247-0, which was 19 more than the required two-thirds for a constitution amendment.
The bill, which now needs passage by at least two-thirds majority in the 100-seat Senate to become effective as the third constitution amendment carried out by the present parliament, coming after the unanimously passed Eighteenth and Nineteenth amendments, which restored a genuine parliamentary system in the country and gave more autonomy to provinces.
The PPP-led coalition government had repeatedly said it had the support of two-thirds majorities in both houses of parliament, though the claim was never put to actual test. But Tuesday’s absences showed how difficult it would have been to bring all supporters to vote in the event of a disagreement between the coalition and the opposition.
The attendance at PPP benches seemed more dense than on opposition benches, with prominent absentees including Asfandyar Wali Khan, chief of the government-allied ANP who was reported to be unwell, Maulana Fazlur Rehman, chief of the opposition JUI now on a foreign trip, and PPP-S chief Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao, who was present at the beginning of the sitting but disappeared when time came for voting process, which required lawmakers to stand in their seats for the approval of every clause and then, for the final act, go to a lobby in what is called division to record their votes in favour or against a bill.
Chaudhry Nisar, whose PML-N, the largest opposition party in the house, was main advocate of most amendments, called the event a “very great headway” for holding transparent elections for which he praised the government and all parties in the house.
The main clause about the interim setup, which had been the cause of differences which held up the passage of the bill since the start of the session on Feb 1, says that if an outgoing prime minister and the leader of opposition in the National Assembly fail to agree on any person to be appointed as caretaker premier within three days of the dissolution of the assembly, “they shall forward two nominees each to a committee to be immediately constituted by the Speaker of the National Assembly comprising eight members of the outgoing National Assembly or the Senate, or both, having equal representation from the treasury and opposition, to be nominated by the prime minister and the leader of the opposition respectively”.
A similar procedure will be followed in the provinces, with the difference that if members of opposition in a provincial assembly are less than four, they all will be members of the committee.
In the event of a committee failing to decide the matter within three days of the referral, “the names of the nominees shall be referred to the Election Commission for final decision within two days”.
An incumbent prime minister or chief minister will continue to hold office till the appointment of their replacements.
The amendment also allows political parties to make additional nominations to their lists for parliamentary seats reserved for women and minorities if an existing list is exhausted.
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