ISLAMABAD
The government is likely to move an application in the Supreme Court for an early hearing of other controversial and challenged clauses of the 18th Amendment, so that parliament could re-amend it along with Article 175A in one go, Pakistan Today learnt on Sunday.
“If the constitutional reforms committee reaches a consensus on 175A under the light of the SC decision and brings it in the form of 19th Amendment in parliament for passage, the committee may have to go through hectic proceedings again after January 2011, in case the apex court also sends other challenged clauses to the parliament for re-amendment,” an official of the Law Ministry said, adding that the exercise would be a wastage of time.
He said the government wanted all changes in the 18th Amendment, if needed, to be introduced in one go to save the time and energies of the constitutional reforms committee and avoid political complications that might develop with the passage of time.
“The constitutional reforms committee is starting deliberations on 175A from November 1. If the committee finalises a new draft bill in a month or two and the said modified clause gets passed from parliament, the fate of the 18th Amendment would not be decided forever, as after the third week of January 2011, the committee as well as parliament might be asked by the apex court to review some other clauses of the 18th Amendment,” he added.
He said the Supreme Court might send following clauses to parliament in January 2011, asking the legislature to revisit them. Amendment in Article 1 – Name of North West Frontier Province was replaced with “Khyber Pakhtunkhwa”.
Article 17(4) – Omission of article 17(4) was challenged, the clause said: “Every political party shall, subject to law, hold intra-party elections to elect its office-bearers and party leaders”.
Article 62, which deals with the qualification for membership of parliament, and Article 63, that deals with disqualifications for membership of parliament.
Article 63A: Disqualification on grounds of defection, etc. “Party Head” empowered to de-seat any party MNA on defection.
“In case these articles in the 18th Amendment are sent back to the legislature, the constitutional reforms committee and parliament will have to bring a 20th Amendment, whereas these matters can be resolved in the 19th Amendment if the court gives its verdict on other challenged articles soon,” the source said.
Senator Khurshid Ahmed, member constitutional reform committee, said, “In my opinion, the Supreme Court has referred 175A to parliament as a test case. The apex court wants to see what does parliament do with its recommendation and if parliament adopts SC’s recommendations on 175A, the case on other controversial clauses of the 18th Amendment will become less important and the court can also send them to parliament for reconsideration.”
He said there was no harm in bringing changes in controversial clauses of the 18th Amendment under the light of SC verdict. “Legislation is a continuous process and the constitutional reforms committee and parliament could re-amend other clauses of the 18th Amendment if asked by the apex court after January 2011,” he added.
Senior lawyer Hamid Khan said the SC would neither revoke nor refer other controversial clauses of the 18th Amendment to parliament. “The apex court has confined itself to Article 175A, and has not touched other challenged clauses. It shows that the SC does not consider them controversial,” he added.
Pakistan Today made many attempts to contact Law Minister Babar Awan but he was unavailable for comment.
