Daily Times

The ruling coalition on Saturday postponed the constitutional amendment bill for a day due to the absence of two MNAs from the country. According to sources, the constitutional amendment bill will now be introduced in the National Assembly today. Sources said PML-N MNA Hamza Shahbaz is currently in France while JUI-F’s Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri is in China. The coalition government requires 224 votes or two-thirds majority in the lower house for approval of the constitutional amendment. At present, the government has the support of 213 legislators – 111 of PML-N, 68 (PPP) and 22 (MQM-P). The alliance also has five PML-Q MNAs, four of IPP, and one each of BAP, ANP and Muslim League-Ziaul Haq. If the government gets the support of eight JUI-F members, it will have 221 votes which will still be short of the magic number of 224. In order to go past it, the government requires support of independent MNAs. As for the Senate, the ruling party has to get support of 64 members. Currently, it has the support of 55 members. The government has support of 19 PML-N senators, 24 of PPP, four of BAP, three of MQM-P and five independent members in the Senate. So, it requires votes of five JUI-F and four independent senators to complete the numbers. Earlier, JUI-F rejected the proposal for legislative extension of the chief justice’s term. Separately, the chief of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), Akhtar Mengal, has claimed that two senators of his party were being “pressurised” to vote in favour of a highly anticipated “constitutional package”. While speaking to a private TV channel the other day, the BNP-M leader said that the houses of two of his party’s senators were being raided. “Our second senator Nasima Ehsaan has said that her relatives and her husband are being pressurised,” he added.