The 18th Constitutional Amendment will be put to vote today (Thursday) after a two-day general debate on the bill, which was concluded a with-wide support for it. Winding up the debate on the bill Wednesday in the Senate, Leader of the House Syed Nayyar Hussain Bokhari expressed the hope that it would be approved with the same spirit as was demonstrated in the National Assembly.
Clause by clause, the bill would be put to vote in the morning and upon approval of all the clauses the bill would be put to vote in toto. Sources told Business Recorder that Bokhari would host a dinner reception in honour of the parliamentarians, including the prime minister, after the approval of the bill.
Earlier, Maulana Gul Naseeb of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam said that consensus of politicians on the Constitutional Amendment Bill was a demonstration of their political sagacity and wisdom. He congratulated political parties for giving Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa as new name for the NWFP. The JUI Senator said that all the political parties were signatory to the new name of NWFP and they should accept it.
Pakistan Muslim League (Q) Senators Muhammad Ali Durrani and Salim Saifullah demanded the creation of more provinces. Durrani said the people of Bahawalpur should be given a new province while Salim Saifullah was of the view that there was no harm in creating new provinces. He said that if India could create 32 provinces out of 10 why Pakistan could not have more provinces. Salim wanted the Constitutional Reforms Committee to work continuously for this purpose.
Senator Dr Abdul Malik said that strong provinces would guarantee the existence of a strong federation and Constitutional Bill was a positive development in that direction. He warned against any hindrance in the transfer of power to the provinces by the establishment and bureaucracy. He requested PML-Q not to oppose the new name of NWFP.
Senator S M Zafar of PML-Q was of the view that the passage of 18th Constitutional Amendment Bill would block all the ways of bad governance and minimise the discretionary powers. Moreover, he said that the approval of the bill would promote democracy and politics of federation in the Balochistan province. Zafar said amendments were made in 1973 Constitution keeping in view the future requirements.
Senator Shahid Bugti of Awami Jamoori Party strongly criticised PML-Q for opposing Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa as new name of NWFP, saying that the Hazara issue was created by the top leadership of the party to deprive small provinces of provincial autonomy that they would be getting through the 18th amendment. Senators Khalid Soomro, Hafiz Rashid, Professor Sajid Meer, Colonel Retired Tahir Mushhadi and other also took part in the debate.