Pak govt unlikely to abolish 17th amendment in December

Islamabad, Dec. 13 (ANI): Despite several assurances to the Opposition, the Pakistan Government is unlikely to abolish the 17th amendment in December - a move that will delay power transfer from President Zardari to Prime Minister's office.

In the recent weeks, the Asif Ali Zardari-led government had assured the opposition several times that the 18th amendment to scrap the 17th amendment would be introduced in December, but it seems unlikely that the promised amendment would be introduced in either house of the Parliament this month, The News reports.

According to sources, the ministries concerned to formulate/draft the amendment are not coordinating with one another while the constitutional reforms committee is working independently on its task.

The ministers who are member of the committee are also not coordinating the work and therefore, the government will have to face embarrassment for not fulfilling the promise with the opposition another time.

First half of December has already passed and the sessions of the National Assembly and the Senate had not been summoned on the amendment.

The same could not be summoned at least till the last days of the month because Muharram-ul-Haram is starting next week.

The ministry concerned facilitated the skipping of the dates agreed by all the parliamentary groups for holding the National Assembly session on Dec 7 while the Senate had to meet on Dec 4.

But the joint sitting of the two houses of the Parliament was used to bypass the two dates that had forced the delay in introducing any constitutional amendment in the either house of the Parliament.(ANI)