Election of Prime Minister: procedure revived as per 1973's original constitution

Reviving procedure for the election of the Prime Minister, the National Assembly on Friday unanimously passed some amendments in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the Lower House of the Parliament under which now Leader of the Opposition will also have to face vote of 'no confidence'.
A motion pertaining to the amendments in the Rules 2, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38, 39, 52, 53, 60, 110, 118, 120, 129, 151, 155, 170, 198, 200, 206, 210 and 244, was moved by Minister for Religious Affairs Khurshid Ahmad Shah and was passed by the House with consensus. Under these amendments, procedure for the election of Prime Minister from the National Assembly has been revived, according to the original Constitution of 1973.
Election of the Prime Minister: With substitution of rule 32, the sub-rule (1) says, after the election of the Speaker and Deputy Speaker following a general election or whenever the office of the Prime Minister falls vacant for any reason, the Assembly shall, to the exclusion of any other business, proceed to elect without debate one of its Muslim members to be the Prime Minister.
(2) Any member may propose or second the name of any Muslim member for election as Prime Minister, hereinafter referred to as the candidate. (3) Every proposal shall be made on a separate nomination paper as set out in the First Schedule and shall be signed by the proposer and seconder and also by the candidate stating that he has consented to the nomination.
(4) A candidate may be nominated by more than one nomination paper, but no member shall subscribe to more than one nomination paper, either as proposer or as seconder. (5) Every nomination paper shall be delivered by the candidate or his proposer or seconder to the Secretary by 2:00 pm on the preceding day on which election of Prime Minister is to be held. Similarly, rules for taking vote of confidence for the Leader of the House have also been amended according to the original Constitution.
Removal of Leader of the Opposition: New rules 39A and 39 B have been inserted in the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business. Under 39A- (1) a notice signed by majority of the members from the opposition may be given to the Secretary showing that the Leader of the Opposition has lost support of the majority of the members of the opposition.
(2) Such notice shall be accompanied by the nomination of a proposed new Leader of the Opposition signed by a majority of the members of the opposition. (3) After verification of the signatures of the members, if the Speaker is satisfied that the Leader of the Opposition has lost the support of the majority of the members of the opposition, he/she shall declare him to be removed from the office. (4) When the leader of the opposition is removed, the speaker shall immediately declare the member who has been nominated in sub-rule (2) as Leader of the Opposition.
In rule 39B, whenever the office of the Leader of the Opposition becomes vacant, it shall be filled in the manner as provided in rule 39. Besides many other amendments, there is also an amendment in rule 244 for the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner of Pakistan.
Procedure for appointment of Chief Election Commissioner: In rule 244 (C), (1) there shall be a Parliamentary Committee to be constituted by the Speaker in terms of clause (2B) of Article 213 read with Article 218 of the Constitution. (2) The Committee shall comprise fifty percent members from the treasury benches and fifty percent from the opposition parties, based on their strength in Majlis-e-Shoora (Parliament), to be nominated by the respective parliamentary leaders. (3) For nomination of the members of the committee, the Speaker shall invite the respective parliamentary leaders to send nominations within a fortnight of receipt of such invitation. (4) The total strength of the parliamentary committee shall be twelve members out of which one third shall be from the Senate.
Submission of rule 155: The ruler deals with the reference of Bill to the joint sitting; when a motion made under sub-rule (7) of rule 154 is carried, the Speaker shall refer the Bill to a joint sitting or, if a joint sitting is not in session, request the President to summon a joint sitting for consideration of the Bill. The House also adopted the amendments moved by PML-N's Zahid Hamid, who earlier while speaking did not oppose the motion saying that most of the amendments proposed by the opposition have also been incorporated.
While explaining the amendments, chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on 18th Amendment, Raza Rabbani said that the amendments in the Rules of Procedure and Business Conduct have been made under the 18th constitutional amendment. He also expressed deep gratitude to all members of the committee from different political parties for their co-operation in making the amendments. Speaker of National Assembly Dr Fehmida Mirza congratulated the House for the passage of the amendments with consensus and praised the government for taking on board the opposition and coalition partners.