Delimitation of constituencies: Government calls parliamentary leaders’ meeting tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: The government made another move to allay the concerns of the opposition in the Senate for the passage of the Constitutional amendment to pave the way for the delimitation of constituencies on the basis of provisional results of the population census with conveying the message to the opposition that Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi will take up this issue in a meeting of the Parliamentary leaders of both the Houses of Parliament on Friday.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbassi has summoned the meeting of Parliamentary leaders of both the Houses of Parliament—Senate and National Assembly—on Friday to hold the discussion on the Fata Bill and passage of the Constitutional amendment from the Senate. The sources were hopeful that in Friday meeting of the prime minister with the parliamentary leaders, a consensus would be arrived for passage of the Constitutional amendment from the Senate as well as for bringing the Fata reforms bill in the National Assembly.

According to sources, the government has approached the PPP to get support with the assurance that all the concerns of the PPP with regard to the census provisional results would be removed if they support for the passage of the Constitutional amendment from the Senate.

Besides its 11-point demand, sources said the PPP has also sought assurance from the government for the implementation of the decision of the Council of Common Interests (CCI) and also asked the government if it was sincere for the passage of the Constitutional amendment, it should bring its full numerical strength in the Senate to get the votes of the PPP for its passage.

The sources said the PPP was also divided on the issue of passage of the amendment bill from the Senate as a group of senior party leaders within the Senate and National Assembly wanted its passage from the Senate as it was passed by the National Assembly while the other group within the PPP in the Senate was not ready to trust the government and wanted to seek solid assurances from it for the third party audit of the provisional results of the population census.

However, sources said Opposition Leader in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah was front runner to advocate the passage of the Constitutional amendment from the Senate as he was convincing the PPP Senators for its early passage from the Senate to pave the way for elections on scheduled time.

In this regard, Khursheed Shah held meeting with Senator Aitzaz Ahsan to discuss the matter relating to amendment for the delimitation of the constituencies on the basis of the provisional results of the population census as well as the opposition strategy for the Friday meeting.

Meanwhile, in a press talk on Wednesday in his chamber, NA Opposition Leader Syed Khursheed Shah was hopeful that the matter of passage of the amendment would be resolved in a meeting with the prime minister on Friday. He said the PPP wanted that the government should complete its tenure and the elections should be held as per schedule.