——– Political bigwigs including PM, PPP Chief meet at Sharif’s Jati Umra residence amid attempts to pass Judicial package
——– Development came to light after PPP & the JUI-F reached accord on a draft for proposed 26th constitutional amendment
——– Bilawal credited for playing a crucial role in bringing the three parties together
LAHORE: The political heavyweights — Sharif brothers, President Asif Ali Zardari and JUI-F chief Maula-na Fazlur Rehman — on Wednesday sit together at the former’s Jati Umra residence in Lahore to dis-cuss 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, Inte-rior 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 pro-posed 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) lead-ership 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 Sen-ate.
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 parlia-ment.
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 ‘consti-tutional package’ with all political parties regularly holding meetings of the special parliamentary com-mittee — a body led by PPP MNA Syed Khursheed Shah — to debate the proposed 26th constitutional amendment. –Agencies
