ISLAMABAD, Nov 15: The president on Friday partially revived the Constitution, keeping articles dealing with the floor crossing, qualification of the MNAs and the power of parliament to amend the Constitution in abeyance.

A notification issued under Article 4 of the Legal Framework Order, 2002, reads: “The Chief Executive is pleased to appoint the 16th day of November 2002 to be the day on which the following provisions of the Constitution as amended by the said Order (LFO) shall come into force.”

The articles which have not been revived are 59 - Senate; 60 - chairman and deputy chairman of Senate; 61 - Senate; 62 - qualifications, and, 63 - disqualifications of the members of assembly.

All the articles dealing with the provincial governments, starting from Article 101 to 138, are in abeyance. The emergency provisions in Part X of the Constitution also stay suspended.

The portion which has been revived covers: “Preamble, Article 1 to 58 (both inclusive), Article 64 to 100 (both inclusive), Article 139 to 239 (both inclusive), Article 242 to 280 (both inclusive), the annexures and the schedules to the Constitution.”

The president also issued another Order called Legal Framework (Removal of Difficulty) Order, 2002, providing that the chief executive will continue to act till such time the prime minister takes oath of his office.

Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada, the top legal aide of the military government, told Dawn the Constitution “has been revived” barring those provisions that deal with the Senate, provincial governments, and chief ministers.

As the election to the Senate has not taken place, technically, it was not possible to revive articles dealing with the upper chamber of parliament. Similarly, as no date for the provincial assembly sessions was fixed, it was not possible to revive articles concerning them. He said the provisions dealing with the provincial governments would be revived soon.

The military government has taken the position that the chief executive has amended the Constitution under the legislative powers which were granted to him by the Supreme Court.

The newly elected members will take oath under the Constitution as amended through the LFO. The amendments, which were introduced in the Constitution through the LFO, are now part of the Constitution, the government says.

The legal experts, who are not part of the government, have a different standpoint, however.

Senior Advocate Mohammad Akram Sheikh, former president of Supreme Court Bar Association, said that after the appointment of date for the restoration of the Constitution, the unamended Constitution, as it stood on Oct 12, 1999, has been revived, and in order to make the LFO part of the Constitution, resort to article 239 was a must.

“The LFO does not have a bet-ter status than a proposal for making amendment to the Constitution over which parliament is sole authority.”

He said this had been a consistent practice during the three previous takeovers, and the present one did not enjoy any better legal status.

He said Gen Ziaul Haq tried his level best to have the Constitution revived with his proposed amendments through Revival of Constitution Order but had to concede to the authority of parliament and it was only after an elaborate debate in the house that a few of his proposals were accepted while the others were dropped.

The National Security Council was part of his proposals but it was not accepted by a non-political parliament.

“Gen Musharraf shall have to negotiate with the chosen representatives to adopt amendments with a two-third majority in terms of article 239 of the revived Constitution,” he said.