Treasury and opposition benches on Monday engaged in a heated debate during the National Assembly session amid the ongoing political saga revolving around the incumbent government’s prospective constitutional amendment bill.
Today’s lower house of parliament session comes after the ruling coalition apparently failed to manage the required numbers i.,e a two-thirds majority in parliament despite strenuous efforts on Sunday which arguably centred around Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s assent to the proposed amendments.
The session, originally scheduled to commence at 11am yesterday finally got underway late night and was then deferred till today has now been adjourned indefinitely.
The possibility of the prospective constitutional amendments comes amid speculations revolving around an extension in the tenure of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa — who is set to retire in October this year — after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) sought an early issuance of notification regarding the next top judge last month.
However, the government needs to secure a two-thirds majority in parliament to successfully pass any constitutional amendment.
After yesterday’s efforts failed to convince the JUI-F head to lend his support, senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Senator Irfan Siddiqui, while speaking to Geo News earlier in the day, claimed that the government’s bid to table the constitutional package has been “postponed indefinitely”.
He revealed that though Fazl’s “arguments were well-justified” and didn’t oppose the amendments on principle grounds, adding that he needed more time to review the amendment draft.
