ISLAMABAD: The Upper House of Pakistan on Thursday approved the 27th Constitutional Amendment Bill with a two-thirds majority after voting on several additional clauses.
The Senate session was chaired by Chairman Senate Yousaf Raza Gilani, and Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar tabled the new amendments before the House.
According to official details, clauses 2 and 3 of the bill were passed with a two-thirds majority, receiving 64 votes in favour and four against.
The National Assembly had earlier deleted clause 19 from the bill, a decision the Senate also endorsed with the same voting margin. The removal of the clause was approved by 64 votes to four, effectively eliminating it from the amendment.
Similarly, clause 55 was also deleted on the National Assembly’s recommendation, again receiving 64 votes in favour and four against. The amendment to clause 53, previously introduced by the National Assembly, was likewise approved by the Senate with a two-thirds majority.
The 27th Constitutional Amendment Bill was passed by the National Assembly a day earlier, where 234 members voted in favour and four opposed the legislation.
Following the Senate’s approval, the constitutional amendment bill will now be forwarded to the President for assent to become law.
The National Assembly has completed the clause-by-clause approval process for the 27th Constitutional Amendment. All 59 clauses of the amendment were approved by a two-thirds majority.
Federal Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar presented the motion for the 27th Constitutional Amendment in the National Assembly. During the briefing, he stated that the position of Chief Justice of Pakistan will be retained, and the senior judge in both the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court, following Justice Yahya Afridi, will assume the role of Chief Justice.
Opposition members walked out of the session in protest when the motion for the amendment was introduced. Subsequently, voting took place on all 59 clauses, and each clause was approved. A total of 233 votes were cast in favour of the amendment, while only 4 votes were against it. The Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam party opposed the amendment.
There were 233 members present from the government benches during the session, while only 224 votes were needed to approve the constitutional amendment.
