KARACHI: The Sindh Bar Council (SBC) has condemned the promulgation of the presidential ordinance on Senate polls.

According to an SBC statement here on Tuesday, Zia-ul-Hassan Laniar, vice chairman, and Arif Dawood, chairman of the executive committee of the SBC, deliberated on what they believed to be an unconstitutional move by the federal government to amend the Constitution through a presidential ordinance regarding Senate polls which had been mandated through secret ballot under Article 226 of the Constitution.

The council believed that the Constitution is sacrosanct, and “any attempt to subvert it by any unconstitutional means amounts to high treason. Such a right can’t be given to any institution, individual or government”.

The council said that Article 63A was added to the Constitution in 1997 which provided that any member of the Parliament or a provincial assembly voting against directions of their party would stand disqualified.

There was a hue and cry against this provision, and it was later amended under which parties could only take action against their legislators if they voted against their directions in matters of the election of prime ministers and chief ministers, vote of confidence or no confidence against a prime minister and chief minister and a money bill or a constitutional amendment bill, it added.

The SBC stated that the amendment was brought about after due deliberations as legislators could not be fettered completely against their conscience.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021