This right is significantly hedged: two super-majorities, one in the Congress, the other among the States, are required for amendment.
Henceforth it will be unable to count on the "qualified" (two-thirds or three-fifths) majority required for constitutional amendments or for appointing, for example, the members of the council that oversees elections.
Now the opposition parties, led by a fiery six-religious-party alliance called Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal (MMA), say that General Musharraf must get parliament to validate the LFO by a two-thirds majority, as required for constitutional amendments.
Wednesday's vote calls on the next European Parliament to be elected in May to initiate the legislation required for treaty amendments to designate only Brussels as the legislative seat of the 500 million who live within the European Union.
Some ERA proponents believe the 1972 language remains constitutionally viable and that only three additional state ratifications are required for the amendment to be adopted, while others believe that Congress must start from scratch since the ratification deadline passed in 1982.
Their absence would make it even more difficult to win the two-thirds vote of the UN's 191 members required for any charter amendment.
But while exempting e-cigarettes from an onerous and potentially costly certification process required for drugs, an amendment to the Tobacco Products Directive approved by parliamentarians imposes tight restrictions on advertising and sponsorship.
The latter lays down that the support of more than 75 per cent of MPs is required for a constitutional amendment to be passed – a near impossibility, given that 25 per cent of them are uniformed military representatives.
While the House has approved a flag amendment bill in most sessions in recent years, the Senate has not taken up the issue since 2000, when the proposal fell four votes short of the necessary two-thirds required for a constitutional amendment to be sent to the voters.
