A bill to give a constitutional role to the marshal will be submitted to the Senate today
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif meets political leaders in the federal capital. Photo: APP
ISLAMABAD:
As Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif meets with his allies to rally support for the proposed 27th constitutional amendment, more details are emerging about the draft package, which – among other things – seeks to establish a constitutional role for the field marshal.
The proposed draft amendment, seen by The Express PK Press Club, will be placed before the Senate today (Friday) after its approval by the federal cabinet.
The prime minister on Thursday held meetings with multi-party delegations as part of the PML-N government’s apparent efforts to prepare the ground for getting a 27th amendment approved by Parliament.
Among those he met was a seven-member delegation from the MQM-P, led by party president Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui. A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said “discussions and consultations were held on the proposed 27th Amendment” during the meeting.
The delegation also included Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tessori, Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal, National Assembly members Dr Farooq Sattar, Jawed Hanif Khan, Syed Aminul Haque and Khawaja Izharul Hassan, the statement added.
Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Economic Affairs Minister Ahad Khan Cheema, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and Prime Minister’s Advisor Rana Sanaullah were also present in the meeting.
The Prime Minister and his team also met delegations of the Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP) and the PML-Q. IPP leaders Abdul Aleem Khan and Aun Chaudhry were part of the delegation. Khan and Chaudhry are also part of the federal cabinet.
Another statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said the Prime Minister also met a PML-Q delegation, led by Minister for Overseas Pakistanis ChaudhrySalik Hussain. The delegation also included Senator Kamil Ali Agha and MPs Ilyas Choudhary and Farukh Khan.
The Prime Minister also held separate meetings with BAP Party Chairman Khalid Hussain Magsi, Senator Manzoor Ahmed Kakar, PML-Z MP Ijazul Haq, NP Legislator Mir Pulain Baloch, ANP Chairman Aimal Wali Khan and Senator Umar Farooq.
“Discussions and consultations took place on the draft 27th constitutional amendment during the meetings,” a statement said.
Highlights of the amendment package
According to the proposed amendments, a nine-member Constitutional Court will be created in place of the current constitutional formation of the Supreme Court. It is also proposed that the upper age limit for judges of the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court be increased to 70 years.
As per the draft, in case of any impasse over the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner, the matter will be referred to the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP).
The amendment also aims to reduce the role of the president and prime minister in appointing judges to the higher judiciary, while strengthening the powers of the JCP.
An amendment to Article 243 will be introduced to grant constitutional protection to the post of marshal. The marshal will also be given constitutional powers, and the proposed constitutional amendment states that the title of marshal will be held for life.
It has been suggested that the federal government will receive an additional 10% of the share allocated to the provinces under the National Finance Commission (NFC) award, while consensus will be sought on the transfer of the education and health sectors to the federal government.
Sources said the PPP was not ready to constitutionally grant additional powers to local government (LG) institutions. The proposal to grant more powers to local authorities will be discussed in more detail.
A day earlier, the MQM-P had demanded that LGs be given autonomy under the proposed 27th constitutional amendment after the PPP revealed the salient features of the proposed amendment for which the PML-N-led government had sought its support.
The party said that after the granting of provincial autonomy under the 18th Amendment of 2010, “the next step is naturally local autonomy, so its turn must come.”
“The important thing that we also said at the time of the 26th amendment is that our set of constitutional amendments should be included,” MQM-P leader Farooq Sattar said at a press conference, referring to his agreement with the PML-N to empower local governments.
“But that didn’t happen,” he lamented, calling for this issue to be included in the 27th Amendment.
