19th constitutional amendment: All set to amend the constitution, again

Senator Rabbani said the consensus on the amendments shows democracy is gaining strength in Pakistan. PHOTO: FILE/APP

ISLAMABAD:?

The National Assembly on Wednesday unanimously approved the 19th amendment bill.

The bill has now been to the upper house for approval.

Earlier, the Federal Cabinet had approved the draft of the 19th amendment bill, which was then tabled in parliament by Senator Raza Rabbani.

The Constitutional Reforms Committee had unanimously crafted the bill, in the light of directions by the Supreme Court. Amendments had been recommended in six clauses of the constitution.

Updated from print version (below)

19th constitutional amendment: All set to amend the constitution, again

The top political leadership on Tuesday dispelled fears of confrontation among state institutions as the lower house of parliament prepared to amend the constitution for a second time in a year, this time in compliance with a Supreme Court order.

“All those who were predicting confrontation among state institutions will be disappointed today,” Senator Raza Rabbani told lawmakers after tabling in the National Assembly a report on the 19th constitutional amendment.

The fresh amendment seeks changes in a two-pronged mechanism for appointing judges in the superior courts in light of proposals forwarded to the parliament by the Supreme Court in its order.

The apex court’s order came in response to several legal challenges to the judges’ appointment mechanism envisaged in Article 175A of the 18th amendment, approved by parliament earlier this year.

The amendment is likely to be passed by the National Assembly and the Senate in their current sessions after a ceremonial approval by the federal cabinet today (Wednesday).

According to the new mechanism, the prime minister would also have a ‘symbolic’ say in the procedure. A parliamentary committee to finalise nominations by a judicial commission would have to cite reasons for rejections.

Furnished by a 26-member all-party parliamentary committee, the amendment has suggested changes to Article 175A of the constitution that deals with the appointment of judges in the superior courts.

The report by the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms (PCCR) has increased the number of members of a judicial commission formed for appointments under the 18th amendment.

The commission to be headed by the chief justice would now have as members three serving and one retired judge in addition to the federal law minister, the attorney general and a representative of the Pakistan Bar Council (PBC). It also specifies 15 years experience for the PBC representative.

According to the draft of the 19th amendment, the judicial commission could not resend the nomination of a person who was once rejected by the parliamentary committee. But ?in case of rejection the parliamentary committee would have to give reasons.

If a nomination is not confirmed, the judicial commission would have to send another one. In case the National Assembly is dissolved the members of the committee from the Senate would take over this job.

If confirmed, the committee would send the name of the nominee to the prime minister to be forward to the president for appointment.

More powerful than ever before

Speaking in the National Assembly, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani called the consensus on the amendment “a gift for the nation.” He said those who had been doubtful about the powers of the incumbent parliament were mistaken.

“I tell you this parliament is more powerful than all in the past, otherwise bringing two amendments to the constitution in a year would have not been possible,” he said in a brief speech after the report.

“The political leadership of the country has shown maturity by agreeing to this amendment, history will remember them,” he added.

Senator Rabbani, who heads the PCCR, said the consensus on the amendments shows democracy is gaining strength in Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 22nd, 2010.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured site: So, Why is Wikileaks a Good Thing Again?.

View the original article here

How Badly The Durbin Amendment Might Whack JPMorgan, Bank of America

Feds crack down on plastic fees

The Federal Reserve proposed rules at its board meeting on Thursday, December 16, 2010, to limit the interchange fee that banks charge retailers when the customer uses a debit card. The rule is mandated by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

If implemented, the U.S. banking industry overall could lose $9 billion out of the near $23 billion in fees banks collect each year. ^[]

These changes will impact those companies that collect fees from merchants such as Visa and MasterCard and pass these on to the issuing banks such as Bank of America and JP Morgan.

A typical credit card transaction involves four parties: the merchant accepting the card, the merchant’s bank, the card user and the bank that issued the card. When a credit card users make a purchase using his or her card, the merchant is charged a transaction fee by its bank that typically includes a fixed charge plus a percentage of the amount charged. The merchant’s bank then pays a portion of this transaction fee to the card issuing bank for the risk that the card user might not pay. This fee is the interchange fee.

Special Offer:? Once a month, Jim Oberweis updates his model portfolio of small cap growth stocks that often return 1,000% and more–a hit parade of monster stock tickers like HANS, BIDU, NTES, FMCN, CTRP, CHS, LULU. His readers bought Netflix in 2003 at $13 per share. What’s new for December and yearend? Click here for the December?Oberweis Report.

Bank of America

Card fees as a percentage of purchases for Bank of America have already shown a sharp decline from 3.3% in 2008 to 1.5% in 2009 due to the changes in consumption pattern because of global economic slowdown and a further decrease in interchange fee by 50% will cause card fee as a percentage of purchase to decline to about 0.7% in 2011.

This would result in about a 4 to 5% decline in the$17.10 Trefis price estimate for Bank of America.

JP Morgan

We estimate that JPMorgan’s card fees as a percentage of purchases is around 1.75% currently and JP Morgan stands to lose nearly $2 billion in revenues annually if the interchange fee is reduced by roughly 50% going forward. This would result in about a 5% decline in $48 Trefis price estimate for JP Morgan.

See our full estimates for Bank of America and estimates for JP Morgan.

Like our charts? Embed them in your own posts using the Trefis Wordpress Plugin.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured site: So, Why is Wikileaks a Good Thing Again?.

View the original article here

18th amendment under review… again

Constitutional Reforms Committee meeting will discuss SC's verdict on the 18th amendment.

ISLAMABAD:?Senator Raza Rabbani is chairing a meeting of the parliamentary committee for constitutional reforms at the Parliament House today (Monday) to tackle and seek a solution to the long standing 18th amendment issue.

As reported in The Express Tribune, the committee will review a Supreme Court interim order that asks parliament to?reconsider an amendment it made in?Article 175-(A)?that deals with the procedures for appointing superior court judges.

Raza Rabbani, the committee’s head, once again faces the daunting challenge of bringing political groupings with divergent views together with political outfits expressing fears that a consensus would probably be difficult to reach.

On October 22, the Supreme Court sent Article175-(A) of the Constitution back to parliament with certain recommendations to amend it again.

When the case was being heard by the court the government representatives defended the 18th amendment and argued that parliament has the supreme right to amend the constitution and that no institution could undo it. It is likely that some parties represented in the committee will continue with this stance.

“I believe that it is the sole prerogative of the parliament to amend the constitution,” said Haji Adeel who represents the ANP in the constitutional reforms committee. He said that the 18th amendment was passed by parliament through a consensus.

In its interim order, the Supreme Court wrote that Article 175-A should be amended in a manner that “in all cases of an anticipated or actual vacancy a meeting of the Judicial Commission shall be convened by the Chief Justice of Pakistan in his capacity as its chairman and the names of candidates for appointment to the Supreme Court shall be initiated by him, of the Federal Shariat Court by the Chief Justice of the said court and of the high courts by the respective chief justices”.

The Supreme Court on Sunday said that the appointment of judges?in the superior judiciary will be made on the recommendations of the?judicial commission as mentioned in the 18th constitutional amendment.

Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, also the chairman of the Judicial Commission, on Saturday,?summoned the first meeting of the commission on November 6.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: Beyond Hiroshima - The Non-Reporting of Falluja's Cancer Catastrophe.

View the original article here