12/21/2019 18th Amendment of the constitution | Examinations Point

The 18th amendment is often described as the landmark achievement in the constitutional history of
Pakistan after the objective resolution and the three constitutions of Pakistan. The National Assembly
of Pakistan gave its assent to the bill on 8th April 2010 and the Senate on 15th of the same year and
month. The president acceded to the amendment on 19th, 2010 and thus it became an act of
parliament. This amendment was a major step in moving towards a pure parliamentary system in
which all the powers lie with parliament and prime minister instead of President.

Salient features of the 18th amendment are as follows.

17th Amendment and article 58-2(b) were repelled with this amendment in order to curtail the powers
of the president. According to this amendment, the president will no longer be in a position to sack the
government or impose emergency in the country. Only a 2/3rd parliamentary majority will give the
president the powers to declare an emergency.

The amendment proposed that a judicial commission would be appointed to recommend the names
of judges, which will then be scrutinized by the parliamentary commission. The parliamentary
commission will forward the names to the prime minister and then it will go to the president house for
final approval.

The council of common interest was reconstituted with the prime minister as the chairman. Chief
Ministers of the four provinces and 3 federal ministers would the members.

NWFP was renamed as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. This sparked protests across the Hazara belt in the
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The ban on becoming prime minister and chief minister for the third time was removed. This paved
the way for the president of PMLN, Nawaz Sharif, to become prime minister for the third time.

Chief election commissioner will be appointed by a committee of opposition and treasury benches.

Caretaker prime minister and ministers will also appoint through a consultation between the prime
minister and opposition leader. In case of disagreement, the chief justice will give the final decision.
Islamabad high court was established in the capital territory.

Total strength of the cabinet would never exceed 11% of the total parliamentary strength. This put a
restriction on the size of the federal and provincial cabinets.

0) Join chief of staff committee and the chiefs of the three armed forces will be appointed on the advice
of prime minister.

) The concurrent list was abolished, which gave provinces the long-awaited autonomy. This dissolved
many subjects to the provincial domain from the federal domain.

2) The amendment made it necessary for the state to provide free education to all the children ranging
from 5 to 16. They will be given free books and uniform along with other incentives for the purpose
motivation.

3) The federal government was made responsible to ask the relevant provincial government before
starting a hydroelectric project in a province. This was in reference to the lingering controversy of
Kalabagh dam.

4) The members of the Senate were increased from 100 to 104, providing minorities the much-needed
representation in the upper house.

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12/21/2019 18th Amendment of the constitution | Examinations Point

This amendment has a special recognition because it was for the first time in our constitutional history
that president diluted his own powers to the parliament and that too voluntarily.

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