The National Assembly (NA), the lower house of Pakistan's parliament abolished president's power to dissolve the parliament in its ongoing session Thursday, official sources said.

The lower house approved the clause of the Constitutional Reforms Bill (18th Amendment) to slash president's power to dissolve the NA under Article 58(2)-b of the 17th Amendment, which had given sweeping powers to the president of Pakistan including power to dissolve the national and provincial assemblies and others.

In its ongoing session the NA is discussing the 18th Amendment Package clause-to-clause. The amendment includes drastically reducing the level of power held by the president of Pakistan as well as the renaming of the North West Frontier Province as Khyber- Pakhtunkhwa.

The recommendations made by the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional Reforms were approved by all the political parties in the country last week.