Cabinet gives approval to 20th Constitutional amendment

In order to protect the fellow parliamentarians, the Federal Cabinet approved the draft of the 20^th Constitutional Amendment that was agreed between the government and opposition parties.

It is expected that the draft will be presented in the National Assembly (NA), the lower house of Parliament, on Tuesday. Earlier, the cabinet reposed its complete confidence to Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani as he prepares to go on trial for contempt of court.

A statement issued by the PM Secretariat stated, “The cabinet unanimously applauded the conduct of the prime minister in the Supreme Court and reposed full confidence in his leadership”.

The premier offered thanks to the cabinet saying, he was elected for the post of premiership with the support members of parliament, his cabinet colleagues and of the coalition partners.

The lower house of parliament is likely to pass the 20^th Amendment today to give legal cover to 28 by-elections and write down the caretaker prime minister oversee the upcoming general polls.

The rules will be suspended to get the approval of the 20^th amendment from the National Assembly, as Tuesday is always reserved as a Private Member’s day. After passage of the 20^th amendment, the session will be postponed.

The two rival parties, the PPP and PML-N, reached concord on draft of the amendment last week when the incumbent accepted all demands of the opposition parties for its smooth passage unanimously.

According to the formula for the next caretaker set-up, the leader of the House and leader of the Opposition will suggest the names of members for the interim government while a six-member committee comprising three members each from the PPP and PML-N will be constituted to resolve any differences.

According to the media reports, the two parties also agreed that the same formula will be adopted in the provinces too. However, the reports also claimed that MQM, the government’s ally party, expressed reservations over the amendment.

The opposition and the government have already agreed upon the constitution of an independent Election Commission and the demand of the opposition to fix the tenure of five years instead of two for members of the election commission.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Feb 14 2012. Filed under National, Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.