A single political-cum-legal mistake of not completing the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), as required under the 18th Amendment, has cost the government so much that it has had to swallow a bitter pill of agreeing – particularly with the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz’s demand of making the ECP more independent and impartial and bringing in a neutral caretaker setup – with senators who are now using the proposed legislation as a blackmailing tool to pressurise the government by linking the passage of the 20th Amendment Bill to the release of development funds.
The major opposition party, PML-N, really used the 20th Amendment Bill as a blackmail instrument to get the government bowed before their demands in exchange of its consent for the bill. However, the legislation sailed through the Lower House of parliament with a unanimous vote on Tuesday.
On Friday, it was the senators’ turn to come forward with their demands, including the release of their development funds, if the government wanted their support for the legislation, which would validate the election of 28 legislators who went into suspension on Supreme Court’s order due to the incomplete status of the ECP at the time of the contested by-elections.
Despite being on the Order of the Day, the government had to defer the consideration and passage of the 20th Amendment Bill apparently in face of the reservations of the senators, with Senator Salim Saifullah and Semeen Siddiqui linking the passage of the bill with the release of development funds.
Speaking on a point of order, Saifullah said the development funds of the senators were not being released. “Release the funds immediately, otherwise I will not let the 20th Amendment Bill get passed from the Senate,” he said.
A female senator from Sindh also endorsed Saifullah’s stance.
Chief Whip Islamuddin Sheikh, however, assured the House that he had talked to the prime minister regarding the issue and the funds would be released by Monday, the day until which the chairman adjourned the House.
Some of the political parties, including Jamaat-e-Islami, PakhtunKhwa Milli Awami Party and National Party, have no representation in the National Assembly due to their boycott of the 2008 general election and these political entities have reservations over the fresh amendments in the constitution.
Neither the government nor the opposition took these parties into confidence over the legislation before it was tabled and passed by the Lower House.
JI Senator Prof Khurshid told Pakistan Today that there were flaws in the bill and his party would not support the bill in its existing form. “The leader of the House has summoned a meeting of the treasury and opposition parties on Monday morning to discuss the legislation under debate,” he added.
Earlier, in a reply to the chairman’s query regarding the legislative business referring to the 20th Constitution (Amendment) Bill, Leader of the House Nayyar Hussain Bukhari said the government wanted consensus on the legislation, so it was being deferred.
All parties, except the PPP and MQM, staged a walkout from the House against “maligning” the Pashtuns.
Two PML-Q Likeminded members, Haroon Akhtar and Gulshan Saeed, did not walk out of the House.
Earlier, Haji Adeel said on a point of order that a private TV channel had reported recently that the Interpol had issued arrest warrants of one of the sitting senators from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He asked the government to take action against the TV channel management or make it disclose the name of the said senator. He called the news a conspiracy aimed at maligning Pashtuns.
The interior minister assured the House that he would take action against a website which declared JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman a beneficiary of NRO, saying he was not so.
