The bill for which Pak Parliament passed midnight got President’s approval, know what changed

National Assembly of Pakistan’ (Parliament) approved the amended bill limiting the tenure of the Chief Justice in the early hours of Monday (October 21, 2024) after an overnight discussion. The Senate on Sunday gave its green signal to the 26th Constitutional Amendment Bill with a two-thirds majority. Then, the National Assembly also passed the bill during a session that started late on Sunday night and continued till 5 am on Monday.

The opposition alleges that the bill aims to reduce the powers of the independent judiciary. Of the 336 members of the National Assembly, 225 supported the proposed bill. President Asif Ali Zardari later gave his assent to the bill, which became law after his signature.

According to the notification of the National Assembly Secretariat, the ‘Constitution (26th Amendment) Act, 2024’ Has received the approval of the President. Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Sunni-Ittehad Council (SIC) opposed the amendment bill, but six independent members who won seats with the support of PTI supported the bill.

The government needed 224 votes to pass the bill. A two-thirds majority is required to approve the amendment and the Senate on Sunday voted 65 to four to approve the amendment. The ruling coalition needed the support of 64 members in the upper house of parliament.

The bill includes several constitutional amendments, including setting up a special commission to appoint one of the three senior-most judges of the Supreme Court as Chief Justice. While presenting the bill in this session of the Senate, Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar said that ‘new faces’ The commission will include the Chief Justice, four senior-most judges of the Supreme Court, two senators and two Members of the National Assembly (MNA). Of the two members each of the Senate and National Assembly, one each will be from the opposition party.

With this amendment, there has now been a ban on automatic promotion of the senior most judge of the Supreme Court to the post of Chief Justice after the retirement of the present Chief Justice. Speaker Ayaz Sadiq addressed the ‘National Assembly’ Presided over the proceedings. According to a statement issued from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), before the cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif met President Asif Ali Zardari for detailed discussion on the proposed constitutional amendment, briefed him and consulted him.

The opposition alleged that the entire exercise was aimed at blocking the appointment of Justice Mansoor Ali Shah so that he could not become the Chief Justice upon the retirement of current Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa on October 25. PTI leader Hammad Azhar termed the amendment as a fatal attack on the independence of the judiciary and said that giving the government the right to appoint judges in the Supreme Court and High Courts will lead to politicization of the judiciary."text-align: justify;">PTI leader Ali Zafar said that his party’s MPs are being forced to vote in favor of it. He said that his party’s MPs were absent because they feared that they would be forced to vote in favor of the government. He urged the Senate Chairman not to include the votes of any PTI MP in the counting.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chief Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who made extensive efforts to get this bill passed, said that the government will move forward with this amendment, whether PTI votes in favor of it or not. Bilawal told the media persons, ‘We waited as much as we could and today this work will be completed under any circumstances.’

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