Proposed amendments not presented before cabinet yet, clarifies law minister.  Defence minister tells NA govt seeking consensus on constitutional package. Asad Qaiser says PTI will launch street protests against proposed package.

 

ISLAMABAD  -  The sudden prorogation of both the houses of Parliament (the National Assembly and the Senate] indicates that the ruling alliance has decided to place the proposed ‘constitutional package’ on the backburner for the time being, with the targets to re­solve the differences with smaller parties and meet their demands.

In order to achieve the required numbers to ensure constitution amendment in the Parliament, the ruling clique will take around a week to ‘woo’ religio-political party chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman, who is cur­rently centre of attention in the coun­try’s politics.

The deadlock on some of the main clauses on a constitutional package most likely to be resolved by holding a series of parleys with Maula­na Fazlur Rahman by the delega­tions of main coalition partners [PML-N and PPP]. The consen­sus on the draft by all the parties is near to impossible in the cur­rent political scenario. The com­plete draft of the constitutional package might not be approved but most of the amendments will be passed by achieving magic figures in both the hous­es, background discussions with senior politicians revealed.

PML-N’s senior politician Riaz Hussain Pirzada, talking to The Nation, revealed that the dead­lock will not continue for more than a week. “It is a complete political show. All the reserva­tions and demands related to the draft of the constitutional package would be removed,” he said, hinting that deadlock on a clause related to the extension of the chief justice of Pakistan might persist.

Former attorney general of Pakistan Ashtar Ausaf Ali said that this constitutional amend­ment is the need of the hour. “All the amendments proposed in the constitutional package might not be approved. I am seeing Justice Mansoor Ali Shah as chief Justice,” he remarked. The treasury benches lawmak­ers, in Mondays’ National As­sembly proceedings, seemed confident to approve its consti­tutional package by removing differences.

Minister for Defence Khawa­ja Muhammad Asif, with the onset of the proceedings, said that the proposed constitution­al package will surely be pre­sented in the Parliament after evolving consensus on it. “It is the wish of the government to evolve maximum consensus, as there is no intention to trespass in the boundaries,” he said, add­ing that this package is an at­tempt to correct the constitu­tional imbalances and undo the 19th Amendment.

“The PML-N and the PPP had signed the Charter of De­mocracy (CoD) and it is our ef­fort to bring amendments in the constitution that aligns with this broad based consen­sus document,” he said, argu­ing that there are several coun­tries where these constitutional courts exist. “There is no politi­cal interest, we want to reduce the burden on the judiciary and bring ease in the lives of the people,” he remarked.

Sharing some of salient fea­tures of the proposed draft, Minister for Law Azam Tarar, responding to the objections raised by PTI’s Asad Qaiser, said that a controversial ‘Constitu­tional Package’ has not been presented before the federal cabinet yet. He said, “This pack­age is a set of amendments to the Constitution, one of which will aim to fix the tenure of the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) for three years.”

The minister said the pro­posed amendments had not yet been presented before the fed­eral cabinet as a draft nor in the CCLC (Cabinet Committee for Disposal of Legislative Cases)”. A constitutional amendment first needs to be cleared by the federal cabinet, he clarified.

Tarar said the process of talks has been started with the Par­liamentary Parties in the Sen­ate and National Assembly on the constitutional package. He was confident that it would be their effort to evolve consensus on the document.

The minister asked the oppo­sition parties to come up with positive recommendations in­stead of just criticising the amendments. “Our aim should be to provide relief to the peo­ple suffering over the last sev­en decades,” he said, sharing the clauses of the draft. The minis­ter said the proposed package envisaged formation of the judi­cial commission as per the spir­it of the 18th amendment and it was proposed to empower the judicial commission. This would help evaluating the performance of the judges of the high court.

PPP’s MNA Naveed Qamar, on his turn, was also not agreed to some of the clauses of the draft. He said the discussions on the constitutional package should be held in a congenial environ­ment. “The Opposition should also sit together and work for the betterment of the country,” he commented.

MQM-P’s Farooq Sattar said that his party should not be tak­en for granted. He proposed the strengthening local govern­ments should also be made part of the constitutional package.

Earlier, former NA speaker and PTI leader Asad Qaiser said his party was considering boy­cotting the parliament sessions. “We will go on the street against this package. It is fraud,” Qaiser said, adding he would suggest the party to boycott the pro­ceedings of the Parliament and the Standing Committees. He said they would not allow the Parliament as a rubber stamp. Qaiser, referring to the special committee’s report, comment­ed that the law minister said he had no knowledge of the pro­posed draft. “From where this draft came?”

‘LACK OF TWO-THIRDSMAJORITY’

The much-awaited constitu­tional package remains in limbo as both the houses of the parlia­ment were adjourned on Mon­day for an indefinite period of time – a development that has enhanced fear of a political cost for the ruling coalition.

The botched efforts of the Pa­kistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) led government to get the controversial constitutional amendment bill passed from the parliament has brought embar­rassment for it with criticism coming out from its allies.

The government had sum­moned both the houses of the parliament over the weekend but despite its two-day long efforts, it could not get the amendments passed due to lack of two-thirds majority.

On Monday, the Senate met for a few minutes and adjourned sine die without holding a sin­gle line discussion over the con­stitutional package. Lawmakers belonging to the treasury say that the ongoing political crisis and instability is likely to wors­en further if the ruling PML-N failed to get the package passed in the next few weeks.

A political source said that the present political set-up is fight­ing a battle of its survival and it is only the constitutional pack­age that can ensure its conti­nuity till completion of present assemblies’ term. He said the ruling coalition and the powers-that-be had been facing resis­tance from the present judiciary and this tension would increase in near future when the gov­ernment has shown its cards through failed efforts of intro­ducing the package.

The treasury members of the parliament believe that the gov­ernment has made the major­ity of the superior judiciary more hostile, than in the past, by bringing the amendment bill and harsh decisions from the latter cannot be ruled out in fu­ture threatening the very sur­vival of the present regime if things were not fixed at the mo­ment. Senator Faisal Vawda, an independent lawmaker linked with the ruling alliance, minced no words in calling the Sheh­baz Sharif government “incom­petent and ineffective” for its failure to sail the constitution­al package through the parlia­ment. “This is exactly what you can expect from the incompe­tent and useless,” he said after the Senate session when asked by a journalist why the constitu­tional amendment bill couldn’t be passed despite two days of political commotion.

“The government members are coming out (of the parlia­ment); ask them what they have accomplished,” he said, adding that he would give his analysis and prediction soon.

On the other hand, the govern­ment again renewed its efforts to convince Jamiat Ulema-e-Is­lam (JUII-F) chief Maulana Fa­zlur Rehman to vote in favour of the package. According to the Parliamentary Leader of PML-N in the House Senator Irfanul Haq Siddiqui, Maulana has not fundamentally disagreed with the amendments but sought some time for deliberations.

We have got removed some controversial amendments from the bill and further delibera­tions are underway, JUI-F Sena­tor Kamran Murtaza told report­ers at the Parliament House.

‘CONSULTATIONS WILLCONTINUE’

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif says ongoing consultations with all political parties regarding the constitutional amendment will continue.

He was talking to delegation of Pakistan Peoples Party, which called on him in Islamabad to­day under the leadership of Party Chairman Bilawal Bhut­to Zardari. Members of the Na­tional Assembly Syed Khurshid Ahmed Shah, Syed Naveed Qa­mar, and Mayor Karachi Murta­za Wahab were also part of the PPP delegation. The prime min­ister said amending the Consti­tution and legislation are with­in the purview of Parliament, which is the supreme institu­tion. He said240 million people of Pakistan have entrusted Par­liament with the mandate for legislation. He said the purpose of the proposed constitutional amendment is to ensure speedy and effective delivery of justice to the masses.

During the meeting, it was agreed that PPP Chairman Bi­lawal Bhutto Zardari and oth­er senior party leadership will play their due role in this con­sultation process.

It was further agreed to en­gage political parties and hold consultation with them to reach any conclusion in the days to come. Talking about prevailing economic situation, the Prime Minister welcomed recent im­provement in economic indi­cators. He said that inflation rate has dropped to single dig­it last month for the first time in several years. Shehbaz Shar­if said the State Bank of Paki­stan reduced policy rate by two percent, which has further bol­stered investors’ confidence in the Pakistan’s economy. He said recent reduction in the prices of petroleum product is part of government’s efforts to provide relief to the public.

Minister for Law and Justice Azam Nazeer Tarar, Minister for Economic Affairs Ahad Chee­ma, and Minister for Informa­tion and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar were also present during the meeting.