KARACHI: President Yahya Khan announced last night [Oct 30] that the country’s new Constitution will be published by December 20 and the National Assembly will be summoned on Dec 27. He also announced that in order to accelerate the process of transfer of power, the Central Government will be formed soon after the Assembly’s inaugural session.

The President also announced that simple majority and a consensus of minimum of 25 per cent of the total seats of each federating units would be required to amend the Constitution. For the purpose of arriving at these figures, a fraction will be taken as a whole. He clarified that the 90-day limit given for proposing amendments in the Provisional Constitution, includes the time the President would himself take to study and consider these amendments.

He said the 90-day period for submissions and consideration of the amendments would commence after the Central Government had been formed.

The President, who was addressing the nation over Radio and TV networks, disclosed that the opening session of the National Assembly will be chaired by the oldest member in the House to be nominated by him. — News agencies

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2021