The parliamentary sessions in connection with the tabling of the "constitutional package" were postponed till Monday after the long delay and meetings of the political stakeholders.
According to details, the National Assembly session had been postponed till 12:30 pm tomorrow. Meanwhile, the upper house session will be held at 11:30 am after the revised schedule.
The meeting of the special committee was held during which Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) President Abdul Aleem Khan, Sherry Rehman, Anoushay Rehman, Rana Tanvir, and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and others were present.
Expressing his thoughts, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) supremo Maulana Fazlur Rehman had said that the nation will get "good news".
Earlier, the federal cabinet's meeting, which was slated to be held at 3:00 pm, had not started.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) had directed its lawmakers to ensure their attendance in both the sessions of the Senate and National Assembly. In this regard, PML-N parliamentary leader in the National Assembly, Khawaja Asif, had issued the letter to the PML-N’s lawmakers.
Meanwhile, PML-N parliamentary leader in the Senate, Irfan Siddiqui, had also issued a letter to the PML-N senators to ensure their presence in the upper house of the parliament.
On the other side, the role of JUI-F supremo Maulana Fazlur Rehman in connection with the approval of the “constitutional package” is quite important. In a bid to ensure that the JUI-F chief will greenlight the constitutional amendment, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and Interior Minister Syed Mohsin Raza Naqvi had a meeting with the former on Saturday.
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Following the meeting of the government’s delegation, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf-led delegation had also reached the residence of Rehman. According to the sources, the PTI leaders had also taken up the matter of the constitutional amendment with Rehman, but refused to address the media.
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For the constitutional amendment, the government needed the two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. This means that the incumbent government needed the support of 13 more lawmakers. In other words, the PM Shehbaz-led government needed 224 votes out of 336 to get approval over the constitutional package.
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211 of the lawmakers are sitting on the government bench, out of which 110 are from the PML-N, 68 from the PPP, and 22 from the Muttahida Quami Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P).
Four of the lawmakers from the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) each, one each from the Pakistan Muslim League-Zia (PML-Z), Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and National Party (NP) are also part of the government’s bench.
On the other side, the government needed the support of nine lawmakers in the Senate.