ISLAMABAD, Nov 7: Sources confirm that a proposal to amend the Constitution for removing the restriction of defection was mooted by Dr Khalid Ranjha to help the PML-Q muster the required support to form a government.

They say the federal law minister, an applicant for the PML-Q ticket to Senate, had proposed the president to amend Article 63 (A), which provides that the floor-crossing would not be an offence.

The proposal, however, was shot down by the president after soliciting opinion from his other legal advisers, out of the law ministry, who were of the view that the amendmend would earn a bad name for the government, which after thorough discussions had amended the Article 63 (A). If it was again amended, especially at a time when the efforts to form the next government, were afoot, the move would be criticised nationally and internationally, they warned Mr Musharraf.

The PML-Q, after mooting the idea for removing the defection clause, was so much confident of its approval that it leaked the story to a private channel before its formal endorsement.

Dr Ranjha, who was brought to Islamabad to fill the position which fell vacant after the removal of Shahida Jameel in March this year, has already got a law passed to help himself and some other sitting ministers. He has had approved the law which barred the politicians defeated in the Oct 10 polls to vie for the Senate election.

Mian Azhar, Fakhr Imam, Begum Abida Hussain and some other leaders would be affected by this law.

It was amended on the pretext that those who have been rejected by the people should not be allowed to enter the corridors of power through any other channel.

But, on the other hand, this would help at least four sitting ministers — Javed Ashraf Qazi, Shaukat Aziz, Dr Khalid Ranjha and Moinuddin Haider — who have applied for the PML-Q ticket to contest the Senate polls.