Zardari, Fazl meet Nawaz to evolve broader consensus on 26th constitutional amendment
LAHORE(MUHAMMAD BASHIR AHMAD) The political heavyweights — Sharif brothers, President Asif Ali Zardari and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman — on Wednesday sit together at the former’s Jati Umra residence in Lahore to discuss the proposed 26th constitutional amendment.
President Zardari and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazl visited PML-N President Nawaz Sharif’s residence to attend the dinner hosted in honour of the political leaders.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, Karachi Mayor Barrister Murtaza Wahab and JUI-F’s Maulana Asad Mahmood were among the attendees of the important sitting.
The development came a day after the PPP and the JUI-F reached an agreement on a draft for proposed 26th constitutional amendment.
Maulana Fazl announced the development in a joint presser with the PPP chief, saying the consensus was achieved after extensive deliberations between the two parties.
He praised Bilawal Bhutto for playing a crucial role in bringing the parties together on this issue.
Maulana had also announced meeting the PML-N president and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leadership to build wider support for the amendment.
Talking to media persons, Bilawal also hoped for evolving a broader consensus on the matter, saying the details of the joint draft would be revealed later.
The constitutional package, among other things, aims to set up a federal constitutional court and fix the tenure of the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) for three years.
Last month, the coalition government made a futile attempt to pass a ‘closely-guarded’ constitutional package amid speculation about a potential extension in the tenure of CJP Qazi Faez Isa.
However, the government failed to even table the amendments in parliament after the JUI-F chief refused to support the government’s judicial package, leaving the contentious amendments hanging in the balance.
To pass the constitutional amendments, the government needs a two-thirds majority in parliament, with sources claiming that it was short of 13 votes in the National Assembly (NA) and nine in the Senate.
NA, Senate sessions summoned today
The federal government has summoned separate sessions of the National Assembly and the Senate on October 17 (today) — the very next day of the Shangai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit as the ruling coalition stepped up its efforts to introduce a much touted constitutional package in parliament.
President Asif Ali Zardari summoned the session of National Assembly on October 17 (Thursday) at 4:00 pm, while that of Senate on October 17 (Thursday) at 3:00 pm, the President Secretariat Press Wing said in a press release on Wednesday.
The coalition government has left no stone unturned to evolve consensus on its controversial ‘constitutional package’ with all political parties regularly holding meetings of the special parliamentary committee — a body led by PPP MNA Syed Khursheed Shah — to debate the proposed 26th constitutional amendment.
