Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday warned he will have no choice but to adopt a “controversial path” for the passage of the 26th constitutional amendment if opposition parties continue to resist efforts to pass it with consensus.
“I am myself making a last attempt to convince the opposition parties to vote for the constitutional amendment in a non-controversial way,” he told a rally in Hyderabad making the 17th anniversary of the Karsaz incident. However, he warned, if consensus cannot be achieved, “then we all have to pray for the country’s democracy.”
Stressing the government parties had compromised on several points, he said any further objection from the opposition would leave no choice but for him to “pass the amendment with the support of Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) and extra members.” In this scenario, he said, the proposed constitutional amendments would pass through “brute majority.”
For the successful passage of the constitutional amendment, the treasury benches require a two-thirds majority in Parliament. The official numbers currently have the government shy of 13 votes in the National Assembly and nine in the Senate. The government hopes to make up this number with the votes of the JUIF and “dissenting” lawmakers, but the matter has become controversial due to allegations of heavy-handedness in a bid to secure support.
Bhutto-Zardari stressed the government could have passed the legislation with “conscience voting,” but had decided to work toward consensus. Detailing his reasons for supporting the contentious amendments, the PPP chief said it was necessary to establish a forum with equal representation of all provinces in the form of constitutional benches at the federal and provincial levels.
Recalling his recent meetings with JUIF chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman and other political parties in a bid to achieve consensus, he said they had sought a constitutional bench rather than a court and he had agreed to this—so long as it had equal representation of all provinces. He said he had similarly accepted a demand to not grant Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa any extension.
“CJP Isa provided justice to Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto,” he said, adding no other judge could dare to give a verdict like that of the Faizabad dharna case. “Justice Qazi Faez Isa sahib! The nation salutes you,” he said. “All chief justices before Justice Isa were cowards, as they never declared a dictator a dictator,” he added.
Bhutto-Zardari also claimed that he had arranged a meeting between the PTI leadership and its incarcerated founder Imran Khan for deliberations on the constitutional amendments.
Earlier in the day, leaders of the PPP and PMLN announced that a special parliamentary committee comprising government and opposition members had “unanimously approved” a draft of the 26th constitutional amendment. PPP leader Syed Khursheed Shah said the committee had recommended placing the draft before the federal cabinet for approval before tabling it in Parliament.