Govt plans vote on ‘lifeline’ legislation for former PM

PTI says will oppose 24th constitution amendment bill at all forum

ISLAMBAD: The government plans to put up for a vote a controversial constitutional amendment bill that proposes right to appeal against an order of the Supreme Court passed in suo motu notice during the current session of the National Assembly.

The Constitution (24th Amendment) Bill was tabled before the house in November last year. In January, the NA Standing Committee on Law and Justice passed it with a majority vote and referred it back to the house for a vote.

The bill was introduced at a time (on November 18, 2016) when the Supreme Court was hearing the Panamagate case under Article 184 (original jurisdiction of the Supreme Court) of the Constitution.

The 24th Amendment bill suggests adding two new clauses -- 184 (4) and 184 (5) -- to Article 184.

The clauses propose that anyone aggrieved by an order passed by the Supreme Court under Clause (3) of Article 184 (suo motu case) could file an appeal in the Supreme Court and such appeals would be heard by a bench larger than the bench that passes the order.



Currently, the Constitution does not provide right to appeal in suo motu cases. The only remedy available to aggrieved persons under Article 184(3) is a review petition and that, too, is heard by the same bench that passed the order earlier.

In September 2017, the Supreme Court had dismissed a similar review petition filed by the Sharif family against the Panamagate verdict. The review petition was heard by the same bench that originally announced its verdict in the case.

PTI MNA Dr Arif Alvi told The Express Tribune that the government had decided to bring this bill to the house during current session.

“It’s mafia-isation of the Constitution of Pakistan. It will be opposed strongly,” Alvi said, adding the current government had a history of passing person-specific legislations in a bid to ease pressure on ousted prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

“In the name of electoral reforms, the PML-N managed to get a clean chit fraudulently from parliament to elect a disqualified person to head a political party,” Alvi said, adding, “The 24th amendment bill is in continuation of such person-specific legislations done in the recent past.”



The government would require a two-thirds majority vote to get it passed from both the houses of parliament.

However, the major opposition party, the PPP, has already been supporting this piece of legislation. Given the situation, the government faces no difficulty in terms of managing the required strength to get the bill passed.

“It [the bill] had been brought due to political expediency, but we will still support it since it was our longstanding demand,” Senator Farhatullah Babar told The Express Tribune a few days ago.

When the bill was introduced in the National Assembly, Babar had commented that “one thing is clear: that the government’s motive behind the move is not based on principles, but political in nature. But despite our reservations the PPP will support it”.

A statement issued by the PTI on Friday over the issue states: “The PML-N is once again out to de-shape the Constitution of Pakistan in a bid to save a disqualified individual (Nawaz Sharif).

“[The] 24th Constitutional Amendment is not aimed to remove flaw(s) from the Constitution. Rather, it is an attempt to make the Constitution of Pakistan subservient to the interest of a single individual (Sharif).”

The PTI also announced that it would challenge the legislation at every level.