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In what is an unusual development for a Sunday, both the National Assembly and Senate sessions will convene today one after the other, with the highly anticipated but closely guarded ‘constitutional package’ expected to be on the agenda.
It is unusual for parliament to convene on a weekend, as it usually only happens in budget sessions or sittings convened for a specific, time-sensitive issue.
The package aims to fix the tenure of the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) at three years among other things.
Today’s NA session was initially slated for 11:30am but then changed to 4pm on a Special Parliamentary Committee’s request made to the NA speaker.
Similarly, the Senate session slated for 4pm was rescheduled to 7pm, according to a notification from the Senate secretariat.
Ahead of the parliamentary sessions, PML-N leader Khawaja Asif was confident that the government would secure the 224 votes needed to pass the amendment, adding that he was hopeful JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman would vote in its favour.
He refuted reports that the amendment was being introduced just to give an extension to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa.
“There no such talks of an extension being given to Qazi Faez Isa. Whatever judicial reforms will be brought, will be communal, not individual,” Asif said while speaking to the media in Islamabad.
Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar also denied that the proposed legislation was “person-specific”.
“No legislation will take place individually,” he said. “Whatever will happen will happen collectively, and for the greater good of the people,” Tarar said while speaking in Islamabad.
He also said that a session of the cabinet will be held soon over the matter.
Meanwhile, PPP Secretary General Nayyer Bokhari issued a letter to all the members of his party in the Senate and National Assembly to ensure their presence during the sessions and “vote as per directions of the party leadership”.
Tabling of package delayed due to ‘strategic reasons’
The constitutional package, as it has been billed, was expected to be tabled in the Parliament on Saturday but was put on hold by the ruling coalition for ‘strategic reasons’ emanating from the hurdles in mustering up the two-thirds majority in both houses.
Though no explanation for the delay in the introduction of the set of constitutional amendments came from the government, an informed source in the ruling coalition told Dawn the delay had “something to do with the numbers game” in the Senate. He explained that the government was short of one member in the Senate, where 64 votes were required for the amendment.
The constitutional package has remained a guarded secret, without any official word on its contents, amid speculations that the government plans to give extension to the top judge.
As far as the NA is concerned where the coalition needs several lawmakers to meet the two-thirds threshold of 224, the source said everything was in order in the lower house, particularly after the oath-taking of PPP’s Makhdoom Tahir Rashid from NA-171.
“Things have been managed and the [constitutional] package will be passed by both houses on Sunday,” the source seemed assured.
Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on Saturday shared parts of the package with the upper house, which included an amendment to Article 63-A of the Constitution, dealing with disqualification of those who cross party line in voting for a constitutional amendment.
He explained that under the amendment, the vote of the members against whom a disqualification reference was filed by their party leadership would be counted.
Under another amendment, the incumbent chief election commissioner will continue to hold office, till his successor comes in. Senator Dar also said constitutional courts would be established to adjudicate upon constitutional petitions.
Also on Saturday, opposition parties decided in a joint meeting of parliamentary parties to send only ‘selected’ members to the NA and Senate so that the government may not be able to pressurise them or “falsely” use their names in favour of the proposed legislation.
Confidence of the parties was boosted after a “clearance” came from the Supreme Court that all those who did not submit PTI tickets to contest the Feb 8 general elections but later announced to join the party, will be considered PTI members.
While talking to Dawn, former NS speaker and PTI leader Asad Qaiser said that a few leaders/legislators from different opposition parties held a meeting in parliament house to discuss the ongoing situation and decide about the future line of action.
Interestingly, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman became the most sought-after leader as the government amid the challenge to muster the support of required number of lawmakers twice approached him.
Efforts to get his party’s backing began on Friday night when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif visited him, followed by government representatives a day later.
Qaiser told Dawn he wanted to meet the Maulana, but government representatives reached there earlier.
As soon as government representatives left the residence of JUI-F chief, the PTI delegation managed to meet Maulana Fazl and other JUI-F leaders just before midnight.
PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan later told reporters he was optimistic about the outcome of the meeting. He said that the PTI delegation briefed JUI-F leaders over the proposed amendments.
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