Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government had introduced the 13th amendment in the interim constitution of AJK on May 31, 2018.
Moreover, instead of originating the bill either in the council or the assembly, the government of AJK presented it directly in the joint sitting of AJK council and legislative assembly on the same day and got it passed. The bill presented and passed by the government of AJK was beyond the approved bill of the cabinet. The following amendments were made in the constitution.
1) Altered provision of section 19(1) and enlarged the scope of executive authority of the government of AJK on the matters of federal government enumerated in Part-B of Third Schedule,
2) Altered provisions of section 31(2) and extended the scope of legislative authority of Legislative Assembly on the matters of federal government enumerated in Part-B of the third schedule.
3) Introduced new sub-section (5) in section 51-A and declared that the perks, privileges and allowances to the elected members of the Council and also salary, allowances and pensionary benefits of the employees of the Council will be borne by the government of AJ & K from its consolidation fund, and
4) Shifted the matters of “salaries, allowance and privileges of the members and including salaries and pension payable to an employee of the council” from Part-A to Part-B of Third Schedule. This was entry No. 29 as per approved draft of the Cabinet.
Besides the above, significant amendments have also been made by the government of AJK, which were neither considered nor approved by the cabinet e.g transforming AJK Constitution Act into a full-fledged constitution (section 1); enhancing the membership of Legislative Assembly from 49 to 53; creating a heavy burden on account of payment of net hydel profit and royalty etc on government of Pakistan (section 5-C); acquiring sole authority to approve or disapprove an imposed emergency in times of war or external aggression (section 53), and putting embargo on dissolution of assembly (section 54).
In the Secretariat of AJK Council, 184 employees are Pakistani citizens and 23 employees are AJK state subjects. On the basis of ratio decidendi of the judgment of AJK’s apex court (1996 MLD 1377), MoKA&GB observed in its summary dated May 28, 2018, that Pakistani citizens do not have any protection of fundamental rights under the AJK Interim Constitution Act, 1974.
Connection : Constitution of Islamic Republic of Pakistan
