The Senate session has stared under the chair of Chairman Yusuf Raza Gilani to discuss the draft of 27th constitutional amendment, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Sunday. Two-thirds support is required from the parliament to approve the constitutional amendment.
Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice chairman Senator Farooq H Naik has told the Senate that decsion on the proposed amednments will be based on majority opinion. PPP Senator further said that consultation on the draft will be completed by 5 pm today and the report will be presented in the Senate on Monday morning. Senator Naik said once bill is finalised by the committees, it will be presented in the House, where each and every section of the draft will be debated and thoroughly review by all members of the Senate.
The government will need 64 votes from the Senate and the government has completed the numbers. It has the support of 64 members without JUI. The government also has a two-thirds majority in the National Assembly.
The 27th Constitutional Amendment Bill was introduced in the Senate on Saturday and was referred to the standing committee on law and justice, following the federal cabinet green-signalled the draft.
The Senate session started at 1:15 pm over one hour behind its scheduled time and Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar wasted no time and stood from his seat, requesting the suspension of the question-hour and other house business so he could brief lawmakers on the 27th Amendment Bill.
The minister then introduced the bill before the upper house, with Senate Chairman Yousuf Raza Gilani referring it to the Standing Committee on Law and Justice for review and consideration. “The Standing Committee on Law and Justice is directed to invite the chairman and members of the Standing Committee on Law and Justice of the National Assembly to participate in its proceedings and share input on the bill,” he said.
Gilani said that both committees may hold joint meetings for a detailed review and consideration and the report would be presented before the House.
PTI’s Ali Zafar said debating the constitutional amendment was not appropriate when the leader of the opposition’s seat remained vacant. He said the government and its allied parties appeared to be in a hurry to pass the bill. “I would suggest that instead of sending it to the committee, let this Senate be treated as a committee as a whole,” he said, suggesting the bill be debated by all individuals. He further said that the opposition had received the draft today and had also not yet read a word of it. “We cannot debate something we have not read,” he said.
The law minister said the bill had 49 clauses. “Let me clarify that there are three main areas and two ancilliary. It will address five subject areas,” he said.
He highlighted that one of the things agreed in the Charter of Democracy signed in 2006 was the formation of a federal constitutional court which would have superior court judges from all provinces and hear constitutional matters while regular courts would continue to hear all other matters.
“During consultations on the 26th Constitutional Amendment, some of our friends suggested to refrain from making such a huge change and to experiment by making constitutional benches,” he said.
The minister said constitutional benches had been made but judges spent most of their time listening to such matters and other cases during the rest of the time. “The fact of the matter is that five to six percent of cases take 40pc of the court’s time and the rest of the cases remain as is,” he said.
He further stated that some argued that constitutional benches were a “court within a court” and also raised other objections.
Deputy Prime Minister Senator Ishaq Dar maintained that the bill has been referred to the committee where all members debate it.