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Main Features of 18th Recent Posts

Amendment Opinion
March 19, 2018  cssczp  Main Features of 18th Amendment, The 18th
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Amendment has restored the federal and parliamentary spirit of the 1973
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Constitution.
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1. The 18th Amendment has restored the federal and parliamentary Evolution of Democratic
spirit of the 1973 Constitution. system in Pakistan

2. Most of the undemocratic constitutional changes inserted during

authoritarian regimes of Zia and  Musharaf (including 17th Timetable
Amendment) have been removed.
3. The amendment renames
Pakhtunkhawa in recognition of its ethnic identity.
the former NWFP as Khyber
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4. The 18th Amendment takes important steps towards devolution of Regards: Admin CZP
authority and enhancing provincial autonomy. It has scrapped the
Concurrent Legislative List of subjects and those subjects with few
Assignments
exceptions have been transferred to the provinces. The amendment
also expands the scope of the Council of Common Interests (CCI). The
Poverty in Pakistan
CCI will become a powerful constitutional body comprised of Democracy in Pakistan
representatives of centre and provincial governments to decide key
matters. The National Economic Council (NEC) has been reformed
with an advisory role to review overall economic condition of the Online Quiz
country and to advise the federal and provincial governments to
formulate plans in this regard. Another important step is the Online MCQs Quiz

distribution of national revenues that is protected by the National Pakistan A airs Online Quiz
Finance Commission under this amendment and provinces’ share
cannot be reduced beyond that given in the previous National General Knowledge
Finance Commission award.

5. The de nition of “high treason” has been expanded in Article 6.

Henceforth, an act of suspending the constitution or holding it in
abeyance or any attempt to do so shall also be considered high
treason. It has also been added to the article that such act of high
treason cannot now be validated by the Supreme Court or a High
Court. This amendment is likely to discourage future military
takeovers in Pakistan

6. The number of Fundamental Rights in the constitution has been

increased. These are the right of fair trial (Article 10A), the right to
information (Article 19A) and the right to education (Article 25A). It is
now the responsibility of the state to provide free and compulsory
education to all children from age 5 to 16 years in such manner as
may be determined by law.

7. Article 17 has been amended so as to do away with, amongst other

things, intra political party elections. This appears to be a negative
change which favours only senior leadership of political parties.

8. To safeguard against discrimination in services, a provision has

been made that under representation of any class or area in the
services of Pakistan is to be redressed by an Act of Parliament.
9. The role of the Senate has been considerably enhanced. The
annual report on implementation of Principles of Policy is to be
presented before the Senate also. Unlike the previous position, now
the President cannot promulgate an Ordinance while the Senate is in
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session. The number of days that the Senate may take to give its
recommendations on money bills has been increased from seven (7)
to fourteen (14). The Prime Minister and his/her Cabinet will now be
collectively responsible both to the National Assembly and the
Senate. The number of Senate Members has been increased from
100 to 104 by adding four seats for non- Muslims, one from each
province. The number of compulsory working days for the Senate has
also been increased from 90 to 110.

10. The Amendment has transferred key Presidential powers to the

Parliament and established its supremacy. The President’s
discretionary powers to dissolve the National Assembly or to refer a
question to a Referendum have been removed. To appoint the
governors, the services chiefs and the Chairman Federal Public
Service Commission the advice of the Prime Minister has been made
binding for the President. Time limits have been xed for the
President to act on the advice given to him by the Prime Minister and
his cabinet. The position and powers of the Governors in the
provinces have also been reduced to that of President in the
Federation. According to the amendments made in Article 90, the
executive Authority of the federation shall not now vest in the
President but be exercised in the name of the President by the
federal government comprising the Prime Minister and Federal
Ministers. The Prime Minister shall be the Chief Executive. Rules of
Business shall be made by the federal government and not the
President.

11. In Articles 62 and 63 relating to quali cations and disquali cations

for elections to the Parliament and the Provincial Assembly, there are
some positive and some negative changes. Earlier a person was not
quali ed if he had been convicted for an o ence involving moral
turpitude or giving false evidence. This has been removed. This is not
a good change since it clashes with the Islamic spirit of the
constitution. On the positive side, in place of Musharraf era lifetime
bans, time limits for disquali cations, i.e., ve years from date of
release in case of jail terms, ve years from date of dismissal from
public service, two years from date of compulsory retirement, have
been reintroduced.

12. In Article 63-A relating to defection, the main changes, to be

e ective after next general elections, are that disquali cation for 
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defection will be triggered on a reference made by Head of a Party (by

whatever name called) in place of Head of a Parliamentary Party, and
the Speaker or Presiding O cer will not be able to ‘sit on’ i.e., delay
the reference. With this amendment the position and power of party
heads like Mr Asif Zardari in the PPP, Mian Nawaz Sharif in the PML-N,
Mr Altaf Hussain in the MQM and some others has been
strengthened.

13. The restriction on a person to be a third-time Prime Minister

and/or chief minister has been removed. Only a Muslim member can
become Prime Minister. This amendment cleared the way for Mr
Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif for becoming PM and chief minister
for the third time.

14. The number of ministers, including ministers of state, has been

limited to eleven per cent (11%) of the total membership of the
Parliament – 49 out of 446 members of Parliament. In case of the
Provincial Assemblies, the number of cabinet members cannot be
more than 15 or 11% of the total membership of a Provincial
Assembly, whichever is higher. This provision is to be e ective after
the next General Elections.

15. Article 140-A pertaining to devolution of power to local

governments has been retained and expanded to provide that
elections of the local governments shall be held by the Election
Commission of Pakistan.137 This amendment will help in having fair
elections.

16. A new High Court has been created at Islamabad with its judges to
be drawn from all four provinces and the Islamabad Capital Territory.

17. By amending Article 200 the provision for compulsory retirement

of a High Court Judge in case he refuses to accept transfer to another
High Court has been done away with. High Court Judges cannot now
be transferred from one court to another without their speci c
consent even for short periods.

18. The Election Commission of Pakistan has been considerably

strengthened. The term of o ce of the Chief Election Commissioner
(CEC) has been increased from three to ve years. For the
appointment of the CEC the Prime Minister and the leader of the
Opposition in the National Assembly shall agree on
three names. The three names shall be sent to a Parliamentary
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Committee consisting of not more than 12 members of whom half

will be from treasury benches and half from Opposition benches. The
person selected by the Parliamentary Committee shall be appointed
by the President. The Election Commission of Pakistan shall have ve
permanent members including the Chief Election Commissioner. The
Commission shall have power to prepare electoral rolls, to hold
elections to ll a causal vacancy, to appoint election tribunals and to
appoint sta of the Election Commission, etc. This amendment will
certainly help in holding free and impartial elections in Pakistan.

19. According to the Amendment, after dissolution of the Assembly,

the president shall appoint a Caretaker Prime Minister in consultation
with the out-going Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition in
the National Assembly. The Caretaker Ministers shall be appointed on
the advice of the Caretaker Prime Minister. The immediate family of
the Caretaker Ministers i.e., spouse and children, shall not be eligible
to contest the elections being supervised by the Caretaker Cabinet.
Similar provisions have been provided for the Provincial Caretaker
governments. This change will help in discouraging rigging of
elections.

20. The Sixth and Seventh Schedules to the constitution have been
omitted. The Sixth Schedule included 35 laws which could only be
amended with the prior consent of the President. The Seventh
Schedule included eight laws which could only be amended in the
manner provided for amendment of the constitution. Now these laws
will be treated as any other law on the statute books.

21. Annex to the constitution is the Objectives Resolution passed by

the Constituent Assembly in 1949. It has been clari ed in the said
Resolution that minorities have a right to freely profess and practice
their religion. This is a good amendment as it will give more
con dence to the minorities.

22. The Concurrent List containing subjects on which both the

Parliament and the Provincial Assembly can legislate has been
omitted. Hence these subjects will be transferred to the provinces
except Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure and Evidence on which both
the Parliament and the Provincial Legislatures can make laws. Some
subjects out of the Federal List Part I and out of the old but now
abolished Concurrent List have also been included in Part-II of the
Federal List which will be under the domain of
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CCI. These include electricity and major ports. National Planning and
National Economic Coordination including Planning and Coordination
of Scienti c and Technological Research, legal, medical and other
professions, standards in institutions for higher education and
research, scienti c and technical institutions and inter-provincial
matters and coordination. Now, in place of ‘National Planning and
National Economic Coordination etc’ at serial no. 32 of the Federal List
Part-I “International treaties,
conventions and agreements and International Arbitration” have been
included.

23. As per Article 153 of the constitution, the Council of Common

Interests (CCI) has been given greater mandate and strengthened to
carry out the increased responsibilities. Now the Prime Minister will
be its Chairman. Earlier, according to Article 153, the membership or
the chairmanship of the Prime Minister was not mandatory. The CCI
shall meet once in a quarter. It shall have a permanent secretariat. It
shall consist of the Prime Minister, three Federal Ministers and the
four Chief Ministers. The list of subjects on which the CCI will have
policy control has been very substantially increased by transfer of
some of the subjects from the omitted Concurrent List and some of
the subjects from Part-I of the Federal Legislative List to Part-II of the
Federal Legislative List as already mentioned. Now the CCI will also
have policy control over reservoirs in addition to natural sources of
water supply. Furthermore the Federation shall not build new hydro-
electric stations in any province except after consultation with that
province.

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