Following a flurry of meetings in Islamabad on a Sunday, centred around the residence of JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the much-hyped National Assembly session over a controversial ‘constitutional package’ finally convened a little before midnight but was immediately adjourned till 12:30pm today.
A session of the Upper House of the Parliament was also rescheduled for today.
Both the sessions were scheduled for much earlier in the day but were subject to multiple delays as both the government and the opposition members remained busy holding important meetings.
The package aims to fix the tenure of the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) at three years among other things.
The Sunday’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.
However, the session was unable to start even at the revised time as meetings between the government and political parties continued. It finally began a little after 11pm.
Meanwhile, the Senate session was originally scheduled for 4pm but was first delayed to 7pm and then 10pm. Later, it was also rescheduled for today. Likewise, a meeting of the federal cabinet was also pushed back to Monday (today).
The whirlwind activity on Sunday continued from morning to late into the night although there seemingly is no deadline which needs the bill rushed through the parliament.
Among the pre-session dialogues was Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s meeting with his elder sibling, Nawaz Sharif, and his son Hamza Shehbaz.
The PML-N leadership also met MQM-P leaders as well as Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, but more importantly, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, who again became a sought-after personality for the government as his party could hold the key in the bill sailing through the parliament.
After the government delegation visited Fazl, the PTI sent a delegation of their own to his residence, comprising of PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Omar Ayub Khan, senior PTI leader Asad Qaiser and the Sunni Ittehad Council’s Sahibzada Hamid Raza.
“The delegation of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf arrived at the residence of JUI Maulana Fazlur Rehman,” the JUI-F wrote on X, attaching a video of the delegation meeting party members and talking to them.
After meeting both the delegations, JUI-F’s Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri complained that his party had still not received a copy of the draft bill, adding that the government was trying to rush the proposed amendments. “We still have not received the draft bill. When we can’t read it, how can we vote for it?” he asked.
He suggested that the government should delay the process and not present the amendments “so that we and the members of other parties can read it”.
“We discussed this with our friends of the PTI, and we’ve talked to the government and asked them not to rush these amendments,” he said.
Barrister Aqeel Malik, who is also the federal government’s spokesperson on legal affairs, linked the delay in the sessions to the government’s attempt to “develop a consensus”.
“Maulana sb (Fazl) is a senior member and he is being kept in the loop. We’re developing a consensus and once all parties are on board, we will present these amendments.”
Responding to a question about lawmakers not receiving draft bills, Barrister Aqeel said that the law ministry had briefed parliamentarians on the proposed amendments.
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.
However, sources said that Maulana Fazlur Rehman has refused to support a couple of clauses of the ‘constitutional package’, including the extension of judges’ tenure and increase in their retirement age, leaving the government-proposed constitutional amendment hanging in the balance.
This development has created a major hurdle for the ruling coalition, which has been scrambling to secure enough support to push the amendments aimed at making major changes to Pakistan’s judicial and parliamentary systems through parliament.
The development came after a meeting of special parliamentary committee, held to discuss the package, ended without a consensus, despite several rounds of consultations.
Separately, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Senator Ishaq Dar, and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari have held a meeting to discuss the current political situation and the proposed constitutional amendments.
The meeting took place in Bilawal’s chamber at the Parliament House, where Law Minister Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar also joined the discussions.
Sources revealed that Dar and Tarar, after consulting with Speaker Asad Qaiser, met with Bilawal Bhutto in the presence of senior PPP leaders, including Khursheed Shah and Naveed Qamar.
The talks focused on aligning views on the constitutional amendment draft and reviewing the number game required to pass it in both the National Assembly and Senate.
The key aspect of the constitutional amendment is that unlike any other legislation, the government will need to secure a two-thirds majority in the parliament to successfully execute it.
In the lower house, the ruling coalition needs 224 votes to pass the constitutional amendment, whereas in the Senate the number stands at 64.
Currently, treasury benches have 211 members against the opposition’s 101 MNAs meaning that the government needs 13 more votes to pass the said constitutional amendment.
