The main coalition partners of the new central government in Pakistan have decided to knock down in its first few weeks all the discretionary powers of the president, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and several other constitutional clauses and laws, which were framed to discriminate against politicians.
The package of constitutional and legal amendments under consideration of the experts of the PPP and PML-N will also provide for the removal of the ban on two-time former prime minister serving for a third term, local daily The News reported on Thursday.
The next government is poised to seek restoration of the deposed judges of the Supreme Court, who were sent packing through the November 3 Provisional Constitution Order (PCO), and scrapping of the National Security Council (NSC).
Amendments
The Sixth Schedule of the Constitution will be amended to divest the president of the power which says that all the 35 laws listed in it can not be altered, repealed or amended by parliament or the government through ordinances without the president’s previous sanction.
However, amendments like the lowering of the voting age to 18 years, increase in the number of seats of the National Assembly and Senate and unprecedented hike in the special seats of women in the two chambers will remain untouched in the new scheme of the Constitution that is being devised now with a view to reviving it in its original shape.
Olive branch
Meanwhile, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has sent a message to Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari that sacked judges of the higher courts can be reinstated provided they don't hear cases against him, said an official privy to the developments.
The olive branch to the PPP, which is discussing details of government formation with former prime minister Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N), has apparently come in the form of a message conveyed through a common friend.
