Not unanimous, but Senate still passes 20th Amendment Bill

Bill passed by 74-2 votes, with Professor Khursheed Ahmed and Professor Muhammad Ibrahim Khan opposing it.

ISLAMABAD: The government did not get its fairy tale ending to the 20th Amendment Bill, as the Senate passed it clause-wise on Monday with two members voting against it.

A meeting was held in the chamber between the leader of the House Nayyar Husain Bukhari, Opposition leader Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidri and other members of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) and Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) where concerns raised during National Assembly session were discussed.

In the end, the Bill were passed with 74 votes in favour. Only Professor Khursheed Ahmed, and Professor Muhamamad Ibrahim Khan of the JI opposed.

Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has also advised President Asif Ali Zardari for approving the bill.

Approved by the National Assembly after seven deferments, the Bill was deferred during a special session of the Senate held for the Bill on Saturday. It was presented again today.

“Yes we have concerns,” had said Senator Professor Khursheed Ahmed of JI, while talking to The Express Tribune.

“The government did not consult our party the way it did for the 18th and 19th Constitutional Amendments,” was the first point highlighted by the JI leader.

Once approved by the Senate, the amendment will provide legal protection to 28 suspended parliamentarians who were elected between April 2010 and July last year when the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was incomplete.

Balochistan issue to be resolved collectively

Prime Minister Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani on Monday while congratulating the National Assembly over passing the 20^th amendment, said that the issue of Balochistan was very serious and needs collective wisdom for a solution.

Speaking in the Senate after passage of the landmark 20th Constitutional Amendment from the House, the Gilani said that the issue of Balochistan is 'very serious' and the government is ready to discuss it at National Assembly, Senate, Joint Session of the Parliament or at All Parties Conference (APC) levels.

Congratulating the parliamentarians, nation and the parliamentary committee on passage of the 20th Amendment Bill from the Senate, the Prime Minister said the amendment would ensure free, fair and transparent elections and an independent Election Commission.

"The amendment is another feather in the cap, it has increased dignity of the parliament and strengthened democracy," the Prime Minister said.

The Prime Minister said the amendment would also ensure that the interim government would not be headed by an imported prime minister but a prime minister who is from the House and has the support of 180 million people of Pakistan.

He said after the fall of Dhaka, 128-member unicameral house of West Pakistan wrote a unanimous constitution.

After the fall of Dhaka, Pakistan remained intact because of the 1973 constitution and "we have to make the constitution strong and effective," he added.

Gilani said that the current government’s efforts, especially the passage of the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th amendments, as well as more steps in the future would be taken to strengthen democracy.