ISLAMABAD – Restoring, at length, the Constitution of 1973, the National Assembly on Thursday unanimously passed the Constitutional 18th Amendment Bill, 2010, without any change to the finalised draft of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms.
Amid loud slogans by legislators, the Speaker National Assembly after the voting announced in the House that 292 members have voted in favour of the 18th Amendment Bill while no one voted against it.
The daylong proceedings of the House continued with full zeal and zest, as the members of National Assembly including Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani attended the session and they kept standing on each clause to consider it a part of the 18th Amendment Bill during the second reading.
The legislators time-to-time kept thumping the desks and chanting slogans when the clauses of the 17th amendment, LFO, 58-2b were being repealed, former President Ziaul HaqÂ’s name was being omitted from the Constitution and renaming NWFP was adopted to make them part of the Bill.
However, during the second reading of the Bill, members of PML-Q and PML-Q (Likeminded) including Shah Jahan Yousuf, Kashmala Tariq, Ameer Muqam Farzana Mushtaq, Marvi Memon separately moved their amendments to Clause 3, 6, 8, 16 and 101, which were opposed by the Advisor to Prime Minister and Chairman Parliamentary Committee for Constitutional Reforms, Mian Raza Rabbani while all the clauses were adopted by the House with votes not less than two/third of the total membership of the National Assembly.
MNA Kashmala Tariq moved all these amendments opposing renaming of NWFP as ‘Pakhtunkhwa’ and removal of the elections within the party and in favour of allocation of 30 percent seats for women in the Parliament and 10 percent quota for women in party tickets for elections.
On the issue of renaming of NWFP, PML-Q, some members of the PML-Q (Likeminded) and some from PML-N did not vote for the clause 3. From the PML-N Capt. Safdar, Sahibzada Fazal Kareem and Mahtab Abbasi opposed the renaming and later these three left the floor. Similarly, Javaid Hanshmi, Khawaja Saad Rafeeque, Israr Tareen, Riaz Fatyana and Nosheen Saeed backed Kashmala TariqÂ’s move for elections within the parties.
Later, addressing the National Assembly, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani while congratulating President Asif Ali Zardari, Parliamentarians, heads of the political parties, reiterated that the politics of reconciliation would be continued.
“The goal which we have achieved today is a dividend of reconciliation but it is not the end. There should be some more amendments. If this support remained with us we will go forward in batter interest of the country and people”, Prime Minister said.
He said from the day he became the Member of the National Assembly, it was being said that the Parliament was not sovereign and some used the term it as ‘rubber stump Parliament’ but today the Parliamentarians had proved that it was a sovereign institution. “Our purpose was to give a right direction to the country and today by passing 18th Amendment Bill we have put it on right direction,” Premium Yousuf Raza Gilani said.
“The people are worried and facing difficulties in their life. I promise that the Government will try its best to address the problems of the people of Pakistan. After this bill we are answerable to the National Assembly and Senate too and the accountability of the Government has been increased”, Prime Minister said.
Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said that the passage of Bill from the National Assembly was a great achievement of the Parliamentarians but now the responsibilities of the Prime Minister had increased and he would have to ensure its implementation.
“The Constitution of 1973 was also passed with consensus but it was implemented for only six years. The Constitution which comes with consensus remains only a paper if it is not implemented”, Nisar said.
He added that now there was no way to escape. The Government has already wasted two years while three are left. Now the Government will have to address the public problems. The Prime Minister should take step forward to resolve the people issue. He will find the opposition with him, the Opposition Leader said.
“On the day, the Parliamentarians promise the nation that they will never support any dictator in future. We respect the Army which remains on borders but we do not like such an Army which occupies its own country”, Nisar said. He added that the Article 6 of the Constitution should be implemented. The governments in history have given safe passage to dictators but its implementation on Musharraf would block the dictators, Ch. Nisar Ali Khan said.