The Lower House of the Parliament passed this bill on April 08 (Thursday). Now, the Bill would be sent to President Asif Ali Zardari for his signature. According to Article-75, the President will sign the Bill within thirty days. Today (Thursday), the 18th Amendment Bill was passed by 90 votes in favour and no vote against it, from among those present in the 100-member house.
The bill transfers several powers, including the ability to dismiss an elected government and appoint military chiefs and judges, from the Presidency to the Prime Minister's House. The repeal of 17th Amendment, Article-58 (2b), Legal Framework Order (LFO), bar on 3rd time premiership, Concurrent List, deletion of name of General Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq from the Constitution and the provision of intra-party elections; a mechanism for the appointment of judges of superior judiciary, access to information and education, and renaming NWFP as Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa are the major amendments to be made in the Constitution.
During the voting session on the 18th Amendment Bill in Senate, Parliamentarians of PML-Q including Leader of Opposition in Senate, Wasim Sajjad, Sardar Muhammad Khan Jamal Laghari, Saleem Saifullah, Muhammad Ali Durrani and PPP Senator Safdar Abbasi tabled amendments, seeking the creation of new provinces - South Punjab, Bahawalpur and Hazara - against renaming of the NWFP as Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa and for the inclusion of deleted Clause-4 of Article-17 of the Constitution on intra-party elections.
Safdar Abbasi of PPP and Saleem Saifullah of PML-Q placed amendments for the inclusion of deleted Clause-4 of Article-17, which pertains to intra-party elections, in 18th Amendment Bill. Advisor to Prime Minister and the Chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms (PCCR) Mian Raza Rabbani opposed the amendments. Senate Chairman Farooq H. Naek rejected the amendments with a majority vote.
While tabling the amendment, Muhammad Ali Durrani said that Bahawalpur was a separate state and it had the status of a province, but after issuance of Legal Framework Order LFO by the then President, Yahya Khan, it was merged into Punjab. He said that Bahalwapur was not given the status of province after One Unit. He said that the PCCR had removed the LFO of General Pervez Musharraf, but "why didn't it omit the LFO of Yahya Khan?"
Durrani boycotted the voting session in protest by tearing apart the LFO of Yahya Khan. The Leader of the Opposition in Senate, Wasim Sajjad said the people of Hazara had shown serious reservations on the name of Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa, and that the House should review it.
Safdar Abbasi and Saleem Saifullah, the movers of the amendment, condemned the Committee for omitting Clause-4 of Article-17 of the Constitution and termed it a grave violation of basic spirit of democracy. They said the political parties had no right to talk about democracy if they were not ready to follow democratic norms.
Although, the Chairman rejected the amendment with majority vote, Opposition Leader Wasim Sajjad challenged it and called for a division. The Senate Chairman conducted voting on the amendment of intra-party elections. According to the count, 71 votes were against it while 21 in its favour. The result of voting on Clause-6 of the Bill pertaining to Article-17 is: 78 in favour while 16 against it.
Safdar Abbasi, PML-Q President Shujaat Hussain, Wasim Sajjad, Tariq Azeem, Jamal Leghari and others voted against this clause. Most of the clauses of the Bill were passed surpassing a two-thirds majority while Jamal Leghari voted against Clause-22, 30, and Abdul Rahim Mandokhel against Clause-48 of the Bill.
Earlier, during the debate, PML-N and PML-Q members staged a walkout from the Senate in protest against the remarks of Senator Haji Adeel. Saleem Saifullah raised this point on the floor of the House without mentioning the name of the ANP leader who had allegedly said on a private TV channel that Quaid used to eat "pork and drink alcohol."
On this, all the opposition members became emotional. They condemned it while raising slogans of "shame", "shame". This led an apology from ANP Senior Vice President Haji Muhammad Adeel. However, he clarified that he had stated that some PML leaders used to 'eat pork and drink whisky' that his statement was not directed at Quaid-e-Azam as he respected the Quaid a lot.