KARACHI: President Yahya Khan announced last night [Oct 12] that the country’s new Constitution will be published by December 20 and the National Assembly will be summoned on December 27. He also announced that ... 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 unit 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. ...

The President ... disclosed that the opening session of the National Assembly will be chaired by the oldest members in the House, to be nominated by him. … As for the Provincial Assemblies in West Pakistan, he said these can be summoned at short notice after completing the elections for women’s seats and a few by-elections. … General Yahya Khan also disclosed that ... the political leaders ... were informed in clear terms of what he was going to announce. — Agencies

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2021