PML-N won’t talk with govt over 20th Amendment: Nisar

No smooth sailing this time! As the government has planned to convene a joint session of parliament to amend the constitution for giving a legal cover to 28 members elected to the national and provincial assemblies when the Election Commission was incomplete, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has decided not to vote in favor of the amendment. Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Saturday announced that the PML-N would not enter into talks with the government over the 20th Constitutional Amendment. “We will not hold talks with the government over the 20th Constitutional Amendment bill as well as the situation developed after the NATO attacks,” Nisar said in a statement issued from his office. The government on January 18 moved a constitutional amendment bill (20th Amendment) in an attempt to provide legal cover to the actions of the chief election commissioner while the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was incomplete. The bill is aimed at giving legal cover to over 28 members of the national and provincial assemblies elected after the passage of the 18th Amendment in April 2010 and before the completion of the ECP in June 2011. Nisar said the government had “only one manifesto and that was to stick to its own interests and power”. He said the government had transgressed all bounds in deceiving the masses. “For its vested interests, the government convenes the parliament’s sessions in no time, but on national interests, it becomes deaf and dumb,” he added.
If the government fails to get the 20th amendment bill passed by the parliament, for which it requires a two- thirds majority in both houses, the Supreme Court can declare the election of those 28 lawmakers as null and void. To amend the constitution, the government requires a two-thirds majority. Though it can manage the required number with the support of its allies and the JUI-F and the independent members, the PML-N’s decision not to talk to the government over the amendment would this time, unlike in the past, not make it unanimous.