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| Senate of Pakistan |
The 18th amendment is often described as the landmark achievement in the constitutional history of Pakistan after the objective resolution and the three constitutions of Pakistan. The National Assembly of Pakistan gave its assent to the bill on 8th April 2010 and the Senate on 15th of the same year and month. The president acceded to the amendment on 19th, 2010 and thus it became an act of parliament. This amendment was a major step in moving towards a pure parliamentary system in which all the powers lie with parliament and prime minister instead of President.
Salient features of the 18th amendment are as follows.
1) 17th Amendment and article 58-2(b) were repelled with this amendment in order to curtail the powers of the president. According to this amendment, the president will no longer be in a position to sack the government or impose emergency in the country. Only a 2/3rd parliamentary majority will give the president the powers to declare an emergency.
2) The amendment proposed that a judicial commission would be appointed to recommend the names of judges, which will then be scrutinized by the parliamentary commission. The parliamentary commission will forward the names to the prime minister and then it will go to the president house for final approval.
3) The council of common interest was reconstituted with the prime minister as the chairman. Chief Ministers of the four provinces and 3 federal ministers would the members.
4) NWFP was renamed as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. This sparked protests across the Hazara belt in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
5) The ban on becoming prime minister and chief minister for the third time was removed. This paved the way for the president of PMLN, Nawaz Sharif, to become prime minister for the third time.
6) Chief election commissioner will be appointed by a committee of opposition and treasury benches.
7) Caretaker prime minister and ministers will also appoint through a consultation between the prime minister and opposition leader. In case of disagreement, the chief justice will give the final decision.
8) Islamabad high court was established in the capital territory.
9) Total strength of the cabinet would never exceed 11% of the total parliamentary strength. This put a restriction on the size of the federal and provincial cabinets.
10) Join chief of staff committee and the chiefs of the three armed forces will be appointed on the advice of prime minister.
11) The concurrent list was abolished, which gave provinces the long-awaited autonomy. This dissolved many subjects to the provincial domain from the federal domain.
12) The amendment made it necessary for the state to provide free education to all the children ranging from 5 to 16. They will be given free books and uniform along with other incentives for the purpose motivation.
13) The federal government was made responsible to ask the relevant provincial government before starting a hydroelectric project in a province. This was in reference to the lingering controversy of Kalabagh dam.
14) The members of the Senate were increased from 100 to 104, providing minorities the much-needed representation in the upper house.
This amendment has a special recognition because it was for the first time in our constitutional history that president diluted his own powers to the parliament and that too voluntarily.
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