Federal cabinet to mull constitutional amendments as NA, Senate set to convene today

After multiple delays, the federal government is expected to meet today (Saturday) to mull the much-touted 26th constitutional amendment 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 is 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.

The Senate, whose session was to resume at 12:30pm, is now to convene at 3pm, according to a notification issued by its secretariat.

In another bid to secure support from opposition parties, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari visited Fazl’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.

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.

Consensus status

While the government earlier seemed confident of introducing the amendment draft in the Senate on Friday, the plans did not materialise after JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman threatened to walk out of negotiations over alleged harassment of opposition lawmakers to secure support for the bill.

PPP’s Syed Khursheed Shah, who is spearheading the special parliamentary committee, claimed earlier on Friday that a “unanimous” consensus had been achieved within the body.

However, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari later warned that if political parties in the parliament did not reach a consensus, he would push the amendment through parliament using a brute, or two-thirds, majority with coalition ally PML-N.

Meanwhile, PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan said his party was close to reaching a consensus with the JUI-F. MNA Malik Amir Dogar said the PTI would make its decision only after consulting its incarcerated founder Imran Khan, whom they are expected to meet at Adiala Jail today.

The proposed tweaks are aimed at taking away the Supreme Court’s suo motu powers, setting the chief justice of Pakistan’s (CJP) term at three years and empowering the prime minister to appoint the next CJP from among the three most senior SC judges.

A major bone of contention was a proposed Federal Constitutional Court, which the PTI opposed and Fazl demanded a constitutional bench instead, which the draft now reportedly mentions.

An earlier attempt last month by the ruling PML-N to bulldoze the amendments did not succeed as it failed to win over the JUI-F and the legislation could not be tabled despite houses being in session.

Fazl mediates amid ‘duress’ allegations

Friday saw Fazl’s residence become the centre of attention as opposition leaders and members of the ruling coalition held simultaneous discussions with him, with Bilawal meeting with the JUI-F chief three times within 24 hours.

Fazl has been playing a key mediating role as the opposition voices concerns about the proposed amendments as well as alleges intimidation of its lawmakers for their support for the draft.

The PTI has claimed that its members were being offered up to Rs3 billion for their support of the amendments.

Sardar Akhtar Mengal, chief of his chapter of the Balochistan National Party (BNP-M), has also alleged that two senators from his party, including a woman, were being “mistreated” to secure their votes for the proposed tweaks.

BNP-M’s Naseema Ehsan, who attended a Senate sitting on Thursday, was so disturbed that she found it difficult to narrate details and just said: “The sanctity of chador and chaar diwari has been violated.”

Protests against the alleged harassment continued in both houses of the parliament on Friday, with JUI-F lawmakers giving the most hard-hitting speeches as they vowed not to vote for the amendments bill under “duress”.