Govt, opposition agree on formation of constitutional bench
The ruling coalition has decided to present the 26th Constitutional Amendment in the Senate today, as confirmed by Senator Irfan Siddiqui, the parliamentary leader of Pakistan Muslim League-N on Thursday.
Speaking to the media after the luncheon, Senator Siddiqui stated, “The constitutional amendment will be brought to the Senate tomorrow.”
He also mentioned that the prime minister briefed the senators on conversations held with leadership from other parties regarding the amendment.
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar provided an in-depth briefing on the draft of the proposed constitutional amendment.
In addition, a meeting of the federal cabinet has been called today, during which the 26th Amendment is expected to be approved.
Following cabinet approval, the amendment will be presented in both the Senate and the National Assembly.
Meanwhile, all the political parties, including the opposition, have finally reached a consensus on the formation of a constitutional bench after the PML-N and the PPP took a step back on the matter of the constitutional court and also ‘dropped’ the word of Constitutional courts from proposed amendments.
The matter, initially focused on the constitutional court, has now advanced to the formation of a constitutional bench, a news channel said on Thursday.
After high-level discussions, four leaders of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the PPP claimed an agreement had been reached among all the political parties on the formation of the constitutional bench, as per the insiders.
This comes after another meeting of the special committee on constitutional amendments draft, chaired by PPP leader Khurshid Shah, concluded on Thursday. The parliamentary committee’s meeting has been adjourned till noon on Friday.
The constitutional package, among other things, aims to set up a federal constitutional court and fix the tenure of the Chief Justice of Pakistan for three years.
