ISLAMABAD, Dec 18: A Pakistan Muslim League-Q legislator submitted in the Senate on Thursday a bill, Constitution (Eighteenth Amendment) Act 2008, seeking amendments to at least 30 articles of the Constitution to strike a balance between powers of the president, prime minister and parliament and to give greater financial and administrative autonomy to the provinces.

Leader of the House in Senate Mian Raza Rabbani welcomed the bill, but said the PPP government had already proposed a comprehensive constitutional package covering all issues, including the repeal of the infamous 17th Amendment, and sought to work with all political parties to make the document a working paper and draft a consensus package.

He said the PML-Q had been in power for five years but it never talked about such amendments.

The bill submitted by Senator Saifullah Khan seeks to empower the provinces to change their (provinces’) name(s) by a two-third majority in the provincial assembly. It calls for representation of senators in the Public Accounts Committee.

It proposes a joint session of parliament if two-thirds of Senate’s recommendations on the budget are turned down by the National Assembly.

The bill suggests that in the absence of governor, the speaker of the provincial assembly should be made acting governor, but without powers of dissolving the assembly.

It proposes that dams, ports and mineral resources should be handed over to the provinces. It calls for biennial meetings of the Council of Common Interests to make it a more affective body for distribution of financial resources among the provinces.

The bill calls for a change in NFC’s formula of distribution of resources to give backwardness and other factors due consideration.

It proposes that political parties should be allowed to function in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas to enable tribal people to join the mainstream politics.

“The chief election commissioner should be appointed in consultation with the leader of house and the leader of opposition and the appointment of the chief justice should be ratified by the Senate.”

The bill seeks to amend the Article 101 to make it binding that no-one shall be appointed governor from a province other than that of his domicile.

The law to detain a person for 48 hours without any reason should be repealed and he should be produced before court.

The bill seeks transfer of property and estate duties to the provinces and deletion of all 27 items from the concurrent list and their handing over to the provinces.