Page:British and Foreign State Papers, vol. 144 (1952).djvu/345

 (c) To have full enjoyment of civil and political rights.

(d) To have no business with the Nation, the Provinces or the Municipalities.

153. Each Minister shall have one or more Assistant Secretaries who shall substitute for him in cases of temporary absence or non-attendance.

154. The Cabinet shall be presided over by the President of the Republic. When the President does not attend meetings of the Cabinet, the Prime Minister shall preside. The Prime Minister shall represent the general policy of the Government, and the Government itself before Congress.

155. The Cabinet shall have a Secretary, charged with keeping the minutes of the Cabinet, certifying its resolutions and attending to the despatching of the affairs of the Presidency of the Republic and of the Cabinet.

156. The Ministers shall be charged with despatching the business of their respective Ministries, and shall deliberate and resolve on all questions of general interest that are not the responsibility of other dependencies or authorities, and shall exercise the functions pertaining to them in accordance with the Constitution and the law.

157. Resolutions of the Cabinet shall be passed by a majority vote at sessions at which one more than half of the Ministers is present.

158. Ministers shall be personally liable for instruments they countersign, and shall be jointly and severally responsible for those which they jointly resolve upon or authenticate.

159. The Prime Minister and the Ministers are criminally liable before the Supreme Court for any common crimes they commit in the exercise of their offices.

160. The Ministries of Education, Health and Social Welfare, Agriculture, and Public Works, shall act exclusively as technical bodies.

161. The Prime Minister and the Ministers shall take oath or promise before the President of the Republic, faithfully to fulfil the duties inherent in their offices, as well as to observe and see to fulfilment of the Constitution and the law.