The government is hoping to get all bills including the Elections (Amendment) Bill 2021 and Elections Second Amendment Bill 2021
ISLAMABAD: (UrduPoint/Pakistan Point News-Nov 17th, 2021) A Joint Session of the Parliament will be held at the parliament house in Islamabad today (Wednesday).
The session will start at 12.00 noon and take up important legislation including the Elections (Amendment) Bill 2021 and the Elections Second Amendment Bill 2021.
These electoral reforms bills provide for the use of latest technology in the elections besides granting right of vote to overseas Pakistanis.
The government has eyed passing more than two dozen bills with the help of its allied parties, while the opposition parties have vowed to foil the treasury’s attempt to get ‘the black laws’ passed at all costs.
The bills to be taken up for passage were referred to the joint sitting by the National Assembly after those were not okayed within the stipulated 90 days. The PTI-led government needs a simple majority in the joint sitting of houses currently having a total strength of 440 members including 341 MNAs and 99 Senators to get the bills passed.
According to the insiders, the government currently enjoys the support of a minimum of 221 parliamentarians, including 179 MNAs and 42 senators. The Treasury benches enjoys at least two votes edge over the opposition parties jointly and the opposition parties are supported by 219 parliamentarians including 162 MNAs and 57 senators.
There are four independent MNAs including Mohsin Dawar, Ali Wazir, and Ali Nawaz Shah, who support opposition while Aslam Bhotani sits on treasury benches.
The MQM-P having seven MNAs and one senator on Tuesday announced to support the government in the passage of all the bills at the joint sitting after its reservations were addressed by Prime Minister Imran Khan and the cabinet members at different sittings.
Meanwhile, in this crucial situation, despite the government’s claims, the PML-Q was yet to officially announce its support to the controversial legislation. Only a day before, Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi chaired a meeting of the PML-Q during which the party leaders expressed concerns over inflation, increasing prices of petroleum products and tariffs of electricity and gas.
“We cannot face our voters in this situation,” they said. The PMLQ in the Parliament is represented by five members of the National Assembly and one Senator.
In response, the joint opposition is determined to resist the government in today's sitting and stop it from legislating on "black laws".
The resolve was expressed during a meeting of the joint opposition, with the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif in the chair.
In the meeting, it was decided that all party heads would ensure their lawmakers’ attendance during the session, as the numbers to block the legislation would matter.
Shehbaz, sharing his thoughts during the meeting, said: "The government has pushed the country towards an economic decline and the masses are burdened with inflation."
The opposition leader said the government could not save itself through its "black laws" as it is "no better than a crumbling wall".
He expressed his appreciation over the united efforts of the opposition in Parliament and thanked them for their cooperation.
Slamming the government on its pressure tactics, PPP’s parliamentary leader in the Senate Senator Sherry Rehman said this joint session will go down in history as the one that tore the parliament apart.
“Any election built on an edifice of institutionalized cheating will never hold. Nor will the laws they try to bulldoze tomorrow via a manufactured majority that will fall like a house of cards,” she said on the government move on the summoning of the joint session of the Parliament.
Meanwhile, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had said the PTI-led government was pressurising parties with smaller representation to participate in the joint session.
"The incompetent rulers are gearing up to extend their reign [by getting the bills passed in the Parliament]. The incumbent government is ruling on a 'fake' majority," he had said.
