The bill was unanimously approved with 90 votes in its favour compared to none against it. Those who opposed the renaming of NWFP as “Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa” during a clause-by-clause reading of the bill voted in favour of the document in line with the commitment made by all political parties for its passage.
Earlier, the PML-Q senators – Jamal Leghari, Wasim Sajjad, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, Javed Ashraf Qazi, Javed Ali Shah, Humayun Akhtar, Fouzia Fakharuzzaman, Naeem Hussain Chatha, Saleem Saifullah, Tariq Azeem, Seemen Siddiqui and Nilofer Bakhtiar – demanded that the government review the renaming of NWFP to address the grievances of the people of Hazara.
Senator Talha Mahmood of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl – who had previously opposed Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa as a new name for NWFP – supported the relevant clause in line with the party policy.
Debate on the substitution of Article 17 of the constitution – which deals with intra-party polls – through the 18th Amendment Bill also dominated the proceedings on Thursday. Under the amendment, parties are no longer constitutionally required to hold intra-party polls. Some senators, including Salim Saifullah, Javed Ali Shah, Nilofar Bakhtiar and Safdar Abbasi, tabled separate amendments seeking the restoration of Clause 4 of Article 17 – which were opposed by Raza Rabbani, the mover of the bill.
Saifullah said elections within a party were necessary to address the reservations of other workers. He said if an amendment was not made to the clause, dictatorships within political parties would flourish.
Senator Javed Ali Shah said dictatorship was the “name of a mindset”, which needed to be changed to strengthen democratic norms in the society. “If this clause is not amended, it would be a blot on the face of constitution,” he said.
Safdar Abbasi said the country could be run through institutions, and “we have to promote institutionalisation through intra-party elections”.
MQM Senator Babar Ghauri said the MQM had also expressed reservations over the substitution of Article 17 during meetings of the parliamentary committee on constitutional reforms.
Leader of the Opposition in the Senate Wasim Sajjad said the article was not thoroughly discussed at committee meetings.
Raza Rabbani – while opposing the proposed amendments – made it clear that the clause was discussed at length during committee meetings, and said the clause had been proposed to “regulate the parties”. He said political parties were bound to hold intra-party elections under the Political Parties Act 2002.
The clause was passed with 78 votes in its favour, while 16 members voted against it. The house rejected all the proposed amendments to the 18th Amendment Bill with a majority vote.
“As many as 90 members have voted in favour of the motion to adopt the 18th Amendment Bill and none against it. Consequently, the motion is adopted and the bill is passed with the votes of not less than two thirds of the total membership of the Senate,” announced the Senate chairman amid applause by senators.
The bill – already passed by the National Assembly – would now go to the president for his ascent to become part of the constitution.
The bill repeals the 17th Amendment, Legal Framework Order (LFO) and Article 58(2b) barring the president from dissolving the National Assembly on his/her own.
The bill also renames NWFP as Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa, provides for the reconstitution of the Council of Common Interests with the prime minister as its chairman and changes the procedure for the appointment of judges to superior courts.
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