BANGKOK: President Ayub Khan has warned that “if Pakistan tears itself away from the present Constitution, it will come to grief”.

In an exclusive interview published by the “Asia Magazine” this Sunday [Dec 10] President Ayub said that while he does not see any need for any changes in the “basic principles and elements” in the Constitution, “I do not suggest that there may not be changes in the method of application in the light of our experience of these past few years.”

President Ayub stressed that the principles on which the Constitution is based have proved their worth. “To my mind, the more I see of the working of the Constitution, the more convinced I am that it provides the right answers to our problems,” he added. — Agency

[Meanwhile, as reported by our correspondent in Dacca,] the National Assembly today [Dec 15] passed five more clauses of the Constitution (Eig­h­th Amendment) Bill bringing the second reading of the Bill almost to an end. There are only two more clauses to be passed. The National Assembly will sit tomorrow when the Bill is expected to be passed.

When the Bill came up for consideration today, a full dress debate took place in the House on the Clause relating to increased representation of women in the Assemblies. While the relevant clause received unanimous support from the members, there were differences of opinion over a point raised by Begum Mujibunnisa Akram, woman member from Karachi, who declared that women would continue to struggle till they got representation on the basis of population.

Parliamentary Secretaries Mohammad Qasim Malik and Khizr Hayat Khan and Begum G.A. Khan were among those who participated in the debate that followed. Male members were of the opinion that women were in an enviable position in that they could contest elections from general constituencies apart from the seats reserved exclusively for them. Besides consideration of the Constitution Amendment Bill, the National Asse­mbly today unanimously elected two members each to the Academic Council and the Syndicate of Islamabad University. Captain Gohar Ayub and Mahtabuddin Sarkar were elected to the Syndi­cate while Messrs Mohammad Shahidullah and Asghar Ali Shah were elected to the Academic Council.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2017