October 26, 2002	Saturday	Sha’aban 19,1423

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MULTAN, Oct 25: The National Assembly will choose the future prime minister through a show of hands.

Federal law minister Dr Khalid Ranjha stated this while speaking at a press conference here on Friday. He said the vote of confidence would be decided through a secret ballot within the two months of the oath of the prime minister.

He said the NA speaker and deputy speaker would be elected through a secret ballot prior to the election of the prime minister. The minister said run-off polls would be held for the prime minister in case the matter remained undecided in the first round. “This will be exercised under the law rather than the Constitution,” he added.

Dispelling the impression that the government was deliberately delaying the transfer of power to the elected representatives, the minister said parliament had yet to be completed. He said the Election Commission had notified the party affiliations of the independent candidates on Friday, while the process of filling reserve seats for women and minorities had yet to be carried out.

Commenting on the ongoing debate on the oath of legislators, he said it was a non-issue as the oath of the parliamentarians had been the same as incorporated in the 1973 Constitution.

The minister said the assemblies were the product of elections held under the Legal Framework Order and, therefore, according to the theory of law, “the creation of a law could not deny the very existence of the law that gave birth to it. The new legislature is coming into being through the same conveyor belt that earlier introduced joint electorate, more seats, same day elections of NA and PA and reduction in the voter age.”

The minister said the oath of judges taken under the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) would automatically come in the ambit of Constitution after the restoration of Constitution with the functioning of legislature.

He hinted at a bar on becoming senator for those who had lost the electoral battle on Oct 10, saying there was a pressure from people and political parties to refrain all those people to become legislators whom the electorate had rejected in the elections.

Commenting on the resignation of NRB chief, Dr Ranjha said it would not affect the government and its functioning.