amendments to any bill passed by the National Assembly which shall be transmitted to the latter Assembly through the President, who will have his ordinary powers of making suggestions for amendments himself. Thereafter, the power of putting the law into final shape is placed in the hands of the National Assembly. There will be joint sittings of the Houses for legislative purposes only when the Senate has disagreed with the National Assembly regarding amendment of the Constitution. In that case, there will be a joint sitting and besides a majority of two-thirds of the total membership of the two Houses of Parliament, there will be required a consensus of not less than twenty-five per cent of the total number of representatives from the constituent units to pass such an amendment. Among other occasions on which the two Houses will sit together will be when there is a motion for impeachment of the President or the Vice-President.
As I have spoken of the amendment of the Constitution, I may mention here that for the protection of the large measure of autonomy, which the new Constitution has given to the Provinces, it has been provided that any bill to amend certain specified provisions of the Constitution conferring such autonomy, when passed by the National Assembly, shall be forwarded not only to the Senate, but also to the Assembly of each of the provinces for their consideration and recommendations. The views of the Provinces will be placed before the Senate which will thereafter formulate its own proposals for amendment and these will be passed back to the National Assembly by the President. In the event of disagreement between the two Houses of Parliament, there will be a joint sitting for resolution of the matter. A further safeguard for provincial autonomy has been provided by giving power to the President to withhold his assent if in his opinion any objection raised by a Provincial Assembly has not been substantially met.
Before I mention the matters in which provincial autonomy has been extended I would like to give a brief survey of the major features in relation to the Provincial Governments. An Assembly for each of the provinces has already been elected. The Constitution provides that each Governor shall have a Council of Ministers and shall act in accordance with the advice which he receives from his Council. The leader of the majority in the Provincial Assembly is to be summoned to form a Ministry, and shall hold office subject to only one condition, namely, that he may be removed if he ceased to command the confidence of the majority in the Provincial Assembly.
Elaborate provisions have been made in that part of the Constitution which deals with relations between the Centre and the Provinces, which have the effect of transferring a large number of subjects from the central field to that provincial field. In relation to a few subjects such as post offices, stock exchanges and futures markets and insurance, where indeed central control is essential, it has been provided in the Constitution, in appreciation of the special position of East Pakistan, which at the request of that Province the Central Government shall transfer its executive functions to the Government of that Province. The powers of the Central Legislature have been expressly confined to matters which are provided for in this particular part of the Constitution. The provisions in the 1962 Constitution empowering the Central Legislature to make laws on provincial subjects under certain contingencies have been withdrawn. These purposes can now be served by the Central Legislature only upon request made by a Province or Provinces. In the financial field, very substantial powers of taxation have been transferred to the
