Deadlock persisted among the political parties over the proposed constitutional amendment as the government called the NA session today.
The National Assembly to meet in the evening (at 6pm), as per reports, to discuss the 26th amendment in the constitution. The Senate (upper house of the parliament) will hold its session on Saturday, said the government senator Irfan Siddiqui.
The government and opposition parties are at daggers drawn to pass and block the amendment respectively. The proposed amendment mainly focused on the establishment of a constitutional court, bench or commission. It also suggested picking the chief justice of the Supreme Court from top three senior judges, media reports say.
The ruling party, PML-N, is backing the amendment while its allies, the PPP and the MQM-P, are also supporting it. Many claim the government aimed to introduce the changes in the constitution on the direction of the country’s powerful military establishment.
The opposition parties including mainly the PTI and the JUI-F are opposing the amendment though the latter is trying to mediate among the two sides.
Maulana Fazl to meet Bilawal
JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman has scheduled to meet PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to discuss the amendment. Both leaders held frequent meetings during past two weeks and exchanged the draft of the proposed amendments. Later, both sides agreed and called for the formation of constitutional judicial commission contrary to the government proposed constitutional court.
PPP leader Raza Rabbani has also called for the consensus among the political parties on the amendment. He said there is a threat to federation if government bulldozed the amendment through the parliament without consensus. He said Bilawal would likely to meet Fazl to discuss the development.
On the other sides, PTI leaders claimed that the government is offering bribes to the party members to vote in favour of the amendment. They said the government is also issuing threat to the members of the parliament in case they voted against them.
