Does ruling coalition have two-thirds majority in Senate?

ISLAMABAD: Apparently, the ruling coalition does not enjoy a two-thirds majority in the Senate, a pre-requisite for any constitutional amendment.

The total strength of members of the Senate is 96. However, 11 seats of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are vacant. Nonetheless, in the current situation, the support of 64 members in the Senate will be required for a constitutional amendment, which is being speculated during the summoned sessions of the two chambers of parliament.

The numbers of ruling coalition in the Senate are 59, of which 24 senators belong to the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), 19 to Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN), whereas there are five members of Balochistan Awami Party. Likewise, the Awami National Party and MQM have three members each in the upper house of parliament.

Similarly, BNP and National Party have one member each, while there are also four independent members. All these together make the figure of 59, five short of the magical number of 64.

However, JUIF has the ‘trump card’ as it has five members in the House. If the ‘reconciliation card’ of President Asif Ali Zardari is successful, then the dice will surely turn in favour of the ruling coalition.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has 17 members, whereas Majlis Wahdatul Muslimeen, Sunni Ittihad Council and BNP-Mengal and Muslim League-Q have one seat each. These members constitute the figure of 21.

Since the role of JUIF is of crucial importance, it forced a delegation of PTI to visit Maulana Fazlur Rehman a day earlier. With the announcement of cooperation between the PTI and JUIF, their collective strength in the Senate has increased to 26.

And on Saturday, the president visited JUIF chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s residence in the federal capital. However, following their widely watched meeting, no formal declaration or announcement was made about the outcome of the meeting.

Nevertheless, the result of high-profile meeting would be before all within a few days when key pieces of legislation are moved in the legislature for consideration and adoption.