The government’s constitutional amendments were missing in action as Saturday’s National Assembly session finally began after many delays from its scheduled time but was subsequently adjourned before midnight.
The Senate session also began but was adjourned around midnight for 30 minutes.
After multiple delays, the federal government was expected to meet today (Saturday) to mull the judicial reform package. 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 did not take place.
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 NA session began around 11:50pm. It was shortly after adjourned for 11:30am on Sunday by Deputy Speaker Syed Ghulam Mustafa Shah.
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.
The Senate session did not begin on time despite the presence of some senators in their seats. It finally began at 11pm with 37 members present under the chairmanship of Senate Deputy Chairman Syedaal Khan.
Govt claims numbers complete
Meanwhile, ministers of the federal government earlier claimed that it had the required number of lawmakers to pass the much-touted 26th constitutional amendment.
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.”
