Parliament of Pakistan

The 19th amendment of the constitution was presented to the parliament by the chairman of constitutional reforms committee on 21st December 2010. The national assembly gave its assent to the bill on 22nd and Senate gave its assent on the 30th of the same month.  The president acceded to the constitution on the 1st January 2011. This amendment changed the following articles; 81, 175A, 182, 213 and 246. Most of the amendments deal with the justice system of Pakistan and the appointment of judges.

Salient features of 19th amendment are as follows.

1) This amendment increased the strength of judicial commission from 7 to 9 adding the appointment of two more senior judges to the commission. Chief Justice will have the powers to appoint a former judge of the said high court or former chief justice of the high court to be a member of the judicial in case the sitting chief justice of the high is not available due to some reason.

2) The member selected from the Supreme Court bar council must have an experience of 15 years as a professional advocate. This amendment made sure that only committed and experienced professionals are made part of the judicial commission.

3) The high court of Islamabad was renamed as Islamabad high court.

4) Tribal areas adjacent to Laki Marwat and Tank have been included in FATA.

5) A parliamentary committee comprising of 8 members was formed. This committee will finally approve the appointment of judges recommended by the supreme judicial council. After approval from this committee, the list of nominated judges will go to the Prime Minister house and then to the president who will then give his assent to the names. If the parliamentary committee rejects the names then they will have to give the reasons and justifications for their rejection.

6) Prime Minister who had no prior role in the appointment of judges was given role in the appointment of judges. Prime minister can reject the list of names sent by the committee and in this scenario; other names will be brought to consideration.

7) The parliamentary committee will consist of 8 members and in case assembly is dissolved then all members will be taken from the Senate. The sessions of the parliamentary will be in camera and members will have the jurisdiction to scrutinize the behavior of judges but will not be allowed to discuss matters related to their behavior in the parliament house or in public.

The parliament acceded to the bill by a clear majority of 258 votes to one. The only member to vote against the bill was Kashmala Tariq of PMLQ who had some reservations regarding the amendments.