ISLAMABAD: Ministers of the federal government on Saturday claimed it had the required number of lawmakers to pass the much-touted 26th constitutional amendment come what may.
After multiple delays, the federal government is expected to meet today (Saturday) to mull the judicial reform package while the National Assembly and the Senate sessions are also to resume afterwards.
The Constitutional Package is legislation proposing a set of constitutional amendments, including the extension of the chief justice’s term. A special parliamentary committee formed last month — which has the representation of all parties, including the PTI — has been discussing various proposals.
On October 11, the PPP made its proposals public, following which it and the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) agreed on a shared draft of the amendments.
The federal cabinet was earlier scheduled to meet on Friday evening. However, it was later announced that a special cabinet meeting would take place on Saturday morning to approve the draft bill.
The 9:30am cabinet meeting today was again postponed till 10am, then till 12pm and was then supposed to meet at 2pm, seeing a total of four delays. The session has yet to begin.
According to a statement by the NA on its X account, yesterday’s session of the lower house of the parliament was adjourned till 3pm today. The Constitutional package is not part of the NA agenda, which was shared on X. NA Speaker Ayaz Sadiq later changed the time for the assembly session to 7pm from 3pm. It was again later changed for the third time to 9:30pm.
The Senate session, initially set to resume at 12:30pm, was delayed to 3pm, then to 6:30pm and then for a fourth time to 8pm, according to notifications issued by its secretariat.
Addressing a press conference at Parliament House, Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said the consultation process was still underway with the government striving to achieve a complete consensus on the issue.
Recounting the various political meetings occurring in the past few days, Tarar said: “Despite the numbers and homework being complete, the attempt was made not to stop the consultation process and achieve broader consensus because when a constitutional amendment takes place, it is our obligation to not only bring all political parties onboard but have a fruitful debate on every clause to take it to a logical conclusion.”
He reiterated that the consultation was “speedily under way” and was further hastened with the government aiming to complete it at any cost today. He claimed that no prior amendment was subject to as much debate as the current one.
“As [PPP Chairman] Bilawal [Bhutto-Zardari] said yesterday. We have other options present but we are democratic-minded people and it is our effort to move forward on this matter after a complete consensus.”
He reiterated that there were “other options” present to the government and there was “no issue” in the number of lawmakers required to pass the package but democratic societies and people aimed to play their role in consensus building.
Prodded by reporters to elaborate on the “other options”, Tarar said: “We have those other options present while remaining within the ambit of the Constitution and the law but the thinking is present in our leadership to try till the last attempt to develop an overall consensus with all political parties.”
He said the other options would be exercised in the “greater interest”.
Similarly, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif also maintained that the government was pursuing a broad consensus on the constitutional package in both houses of parliament despite the government’s numbers being “pretty much complete”.
Addressing a press conference at Parliament House, he said, “We want to develop broad-based consensus in both the assembly and the Senate so that this legislation is passed.”
“This is not a law you pass every day and there is a need for judicial reform. The greater consensus we can reach, the better,” he added.
“Our numbers are complete. We presented a final draft yesterday and the PTI were due to meet their leader (Imran Khan) to agree on it today. However, their MNAs are going against the leadership.
“The major goal of this amendment is to establish the supremacy of parliament, as guaranteed in the Constitution,” Asif continued.
“Our turf (parliament) is being encroached on. We want to stop that to restore parliament’s omnipotence.”
The defence minister said that the Supreme Court had issued verdicts over the past several years that “encroached on the supremacy of parliament”. He urged the Supreme Court to “work within its defined role” and “not trespass on parliament’s turf as it is unconstitutional”.
“We are hoping that we can reach a consensus by evening,” Asif said. “Nobody wants to compromise parliament’s supremacy. Even if we cannot reach an agreement, we have the numbers to pass this.”
Asif then turned to allegations of parliamentarians being intimidated and their families being abducted and largely dismissed them criticising the PTI for being “known for making these false statements”.
“Even when they governed, they built a factory of lies,” Asif said. “They should reveal the names of those allegedly kidnapped, imprisoned, or held hostage,” he said.
Bilawal claims PPP and JUI-F ‘100pc’ in agreement
Meanwhile, in another bid to secure support from opposition parties, Bilawal visited Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s residence again today, where he also met with Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) chief Akhtar Mengal.
Other leaders from the three parties, including PPP’s Naveed Qamar and JUI-F’s Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri, were also present on the occasion, a PPP statement said.
Talking to the media after the meeting, Bilawal announced his party was “100 per cent in agreement” with the JUI-F on the draft bill for the constitutional package.
“The PPP and JUI-F are 100pc on board with judicial reforms. I suggested to Maulana sahib that he be the one to present the bill in parliament.”
The Bhutto scion said that both parties agreed on abolishing the 19th Amendment and on creating the constitutional benches.
“The draft I want Maulana sahib to present is the one we worked on together,” Bilawal added. “We have also recommended in our draft that requests from parliamentarians will be sent to the Council of Islamic Ideology for approval.”
Bilawal acknowledged that the JUI-F chief had previously reached a consensus with the PTI, expressing confidence that the PTI, having spoken with party founder Imran Khan, would approach the JUI-F to reach a consensus.
“You are a political party, not a social media movement,” Bilawal said, addressing the PTI. “We have accepted some of your political demands, but requests cannot be completely fulfilled. We have done what we can.
“I have worked day and night to ensure that we reach a political consensus,” the PPP chairman reiterated. “God forbid if it is passed without consensus, it will be a defeat for parliament.”
He added that if the PTI raised issues or complaints after the amendments were passed then it would have to bear the sole blame.
Earlier, a PPP delegation led by Bilawal also called on Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Islamabad to discuss the “overall political situation”, state-run Radio Pakistan reported.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar and Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar also attended the meeting, the report added.
