ISLAMABAD: Ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Parliamentary Leader in Senate Irfan Siddiqui said on Thursday that the bill on contentious constitutional package would be tabled in the upper house of the parliament on Friday (tomorrow) after “three parties reached consensus on a comprehensive draft”.
Siddiqui, speaking to journalists in the parliament after attending a special committee meeting on constitutional reforms, detailed that a final draft would be finalised by Friday evening and presented before the Senate in tomorrow’s session.
He said that Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar gave a briefing on the draft in the meeting, adding that Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Senator Kamran Murtaza also expressed optimism about the proposed amendments.According to Siddiqui, 90% of the work on the amendments has been completed, and hopefully, the package will be tabled in the Senate on Friday.
Substantial progress has been made on the proposed constitutional amendments package, with just a few finishing touches needed, he added.
Siddiqui’s assertion referred to the coalition government’s claims of securing ‘magic number’ in parliament as the two-thirds majority required to pass the constitutional amendment.
Signalling a consensus between the ruling PML-N, the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), and the JUI-F, he said religio-political party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had shown a “general agreement” on all matters.
He said that “it is a matter of give and take” and the coalition government has also accepted recommendations from the politico-religious party. Those points which drew reservations from major parties have been precisely modified [in today’s meeting], he added.
The PML-N senator claimed that they saw a “very comprehensive draft” in the meeting today in which judiciary-related constitutional reforms were added. The draft was free from any act which affects public opinion or judiciary powers, he clarified.
