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The Seventeenth Amendment to the Constitution of Pakistan (
Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Constitution of Pakistan The Constitution of Pakistan ( ur, ), also known as the 1973 Constitution, is the supreme law of Pakistan. Drafted by the government of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, with additional assistance from the country's opposition parties, it was approved by ...
passed in December 2003, after over a year of political wrangling between supporters and opponents of Pakistani President
Pervez Musharraf General Pervez Musharraf ( ur, , Parvez Muśharraf; born 11 August 1943) is a former Pakistani politician and four-star general of the Pakistan Army who became the tenth president of Pakistan after the successful military takeover of t ...
. This amendment made many changes to Pakistan's constitution. Many of these changes dealt with the office of the president and the reversal of the effects of the Thirteenth Amendment. Summarized here are brief descriptions of the major points. *President Musharraf's Legal Framework Order (LFO) was largely incorporated into the constitution, with a few changes. *Article 63(1)(d) of the Constitution to become operative after December 31, 2004. The intent of this was to prohibit a person from holding both a political office (such as that of the president) and an "
office of profit An office of profit means a position that brings to the person holding it some financial gain, or advantage, or benefit. It may be an office or place of profit if it carries some remuneration, financial advantage, benefit etc. It is a term used in ...
" - an office that is typically held by a career government servant, civil or military - such as the office of the Chief of Army Staff. Although this was supposed to separate the two types of office, a loophole - "''.. other than an office declared by law ..''" - allowed Parliament to pass an ordinary law later in 2004 - permitting the President to hold on to the office of Chief of Army Staff, an option that President Musharraf then exercised. *Should the President win a majority in a vote of confidence in the electoral college within 30 days of the passage of this amendment, he shall be deemed to be elected to the office of President. (On January 1, 2004, Musharraf won 658 out of 1,170 electoral-college votes - a 56% majority - and was thereby deemed to be elected president.) *The President regains the
authority In the fields of sociology and political science, authority is the legitimate power of a person or group over other people. In a civil state, ''authority'' is practiced in ways such a judicial branch or an executive branch of government.''T ...
to dissolve the
National Assembly In politics, a national assembly is either a unicameral legislature, the lower house of a bicameral legislature, or both houses of a bicameral legislature together. In the English language it generally means "an assembly composed of the r ...
- and thus effectively to dismiss the Pakistani Prime Minister - but the power to do so is made subject to an approval or veto by the
Supreme Court of Pakistan The Supreme Court of Pakistan ( ur, ; ''Adālat-e-Uzma Pākistān'') is the apex court in the judicial hierarchy of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. Established in accordance to thePart VIIof the Constitution of Pakistan, it has ultimate a ...
. *A Governor's power to dissolve a Provincial Assembly is similarly subject to Supreme Court approval or veto. *Article 152A, which dealt with the
National Security Council A national security council (NSC) is usually an executive branch governmental body responsible for coordinating policy on national security issues and advising chief executives on matters related to national security. An NSC is often headed by a n ...
, was annulled. (The legal basis for the NSC is now an ordinary law, the National Security Council Act of 2004.) *Ten laws had been added by the LFO to the Sixth Schedule, which is a list of "laws that are not to be altered, repealed or amended without the previous sanction of the President." After this amendment, five of those laws will lose their Sixth Schedule protection after six years. Laws to be unprotected include the four laws that established the system of democratic local governments. (Those in favor of this change have argued that it would enable each province to evolve its own systems. Opponents fear that authoritarian provincial governments could disempower or even dismantle the system of local democracies.) {{Constitution of Pakistan


External links


Constitution (Seventeenth Amendment) Act, 2003
(Text of Amendment Act)
Seventeenth amendment and after
Op-Ed by Hasan Askari-Rizvi, Daily Times, Pakistan. 17 2003 in law