Islamabad: An independent Senator form Punjab, Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari tabled a private member constitutional amendment bill on August 26, 2013 in the Senate of Pakistan to address the periodicity and deadline predictability deficit in the Article 140-A of the Constitution.
Following is the text of the proposed constitutional amendment.
Introduced on 26-8-2013 in the Senate:
A BILL further to amend the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
WHEREAS it is expedient further to amend the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for the purposes hereinafter appearing;
It is hereby enacted as follows:-
1. Short title and commencement.- (1) This Act may be called the Constitution (Amendment) Act, 2013.
(2) It shall come into force at once.
2. Amendment of Article 140A of the Constitution.- In the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan, in Article 140A, after clause (2), the following new clause shall be added, namely:-
“(3) The elections to a local government shall be held within a period of forty-five days immediately following the day on which the term of the local government is due to expire, unless the local government has been sooner dissolved and new elections are necessitated, in such a case, new elections will be held and new local government will be put in place within forty-five days of the dissolution of the said local government.
Explanation.- Local Governments shall not be without elected representatives for more than forty-five days.”.
STATEMENT OF OBJECTS AND REASONS
The Constitutional amendment is designed to cater to the absence of specified time for Local Government Bodies elections in the Constitution. Importance of the role of the Local Governments is envisioned in various Articles (7, 32 and 140A etc.) of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan and we have not had Local Government elections since 2005 due to this lacuna. Therefore, in order to bind the Election Commission of Pakistan to hold regular elections of the Local Government Bodies within a specified period, this amendment is necessary.
SENATOR MUHAMMAD MOHSIN KHAN LEGHARI
Member-in-charge
