ISLAMABAD: All parliamentary political parties especially Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) agreed on Thursday to form a constitutional bench after the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) did not press for formation of a constitutional court.
The In-camera meeting of the special parliamentary committee headed by Khursheed Shah was also attended by PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan and Omar Ayub, the opposition leader in the National Assembly, despite boycotting the meeting a day ago.
The sources privy to the meeting told Business Recorder that all the parties including the PTI agreed on formation of a constitutional bench instead of a separate court.
“The PPP and the PML-N did not insist on formation of a federal constitutional court for which the latter has been advocating for quite long. Both the parties agreed on formation of a bench which helped in developing a consensus among all the parties attending the meeting,” said a member privy to the meeting.
This comes after another meeting of the special committee on constitutional amendments draft concluded on Thursday. The parliamentary committee’s meeting has been adjourned till Friday at 12pm.
Talking to journalists after the meeting, Gohar said that the government presented its third draft on the controversial amendment, but now it has talked about a constitutional bench instead of a constitutional court.
He said that the government is yet to bring its complete draft as the committee has just agreed on formation of a bench as any attempt to create a constitutional court is not acceptable.
To a question, he said that the party leaders will hold a meeting with Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on the amendment issue as both the parties’ stance is clear about the formation of a controversial so-called federal constitutional court.
He also claimed that seven lawmakers belonging to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) are not going to vote on the controversial amendment about which the regime is quite optimistic about getting it sail through the parliament.
He insisted that it is the wishful thinking of the ruling elite that its numbers are complete to get the controversial bill passed from parliament, adding the government has neither spoken to its members on the amendment issue nor all its members are onboard.
When asked about the seven PML-N MNAs, he said that he has learnt about them from “credible” sources within the ruling PML-N, adding, “The seven MNAs are ready to be disqualified but they are not going to vote on the bill.”
“There are still such people who think any voting against their conscience is betraying oneself. This is the reason the ruling elite will get a big surprise on the day of voting on the controversial bill,” he maintained.
Talking to journalists after the meeting, Khursheed Shah expressed optimism that the draft of the constitutional amendment would be completed in the next two days.
He said that PTI Is helpless as far as the amendments are concerned as both Omar Ayub and Gohar Ali Khan have no mandate, adding both the PTI leaders failed to bring forth any proposed draft despite repeated requests.
According to sources, the government’s draft proposed that the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) will notify the members of the bench. Moreover, the draft also proposes the process of the reconstitution of the JCP.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2024
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