A joint session of the parliament is currently underway and will take up more than two dozen crucial bills, including the electoral reforms bills, which have either lapsed or were rejected by the Senate.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, who arrived at Parliament House shortly before the session was expected to begin, was hounded by the media as he made his way to chair a meeting of the PTI's parliamentary team but remained tight-lipped. The government's coalition partners were also part of the meeting.
"You are conducting so many meetings. Are you worried about something despite having a majority?" asked a reporter.
"Who is meeting people?" PM Imran shot back as he appeared to discourage the impression that he had to convince his allies for support in today’s session.
"When a sportsman steps onto the playing field, he is prepared for every possible outcome and vows to perform better than his opponent," he added.
Speaking to the media after the parliamentary party meeting, Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that the premier had thanked the government's allies for their support as well as lawmakers who had managed to arrive despite personal circumstances.
Chaudhry said lawmakers had expressed confidence in the premier's leadership, which would be reflected in the joint session. He said that the bills the government would table would be "easily passed".
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who also spoke to the media at Parliament House, said that the government had complete trust in its allies. "We trust them because the people of their constituencies have given them the mandate," he said.
He said that the government wanted fair and transparent polls which would strengthen democracy in the country. The minister said that the government wanted to protect the rights of the people, which was the basic responsibility of legislators.
Shehbaz writes letter to NA speaker
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari — who arrived in Islamabad on Tuesday evening — met with Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif at the latter's chamber. The two also attended a parliamentary meeting of the joint opposition.
Later, a delegation of opposition leaders called on National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser and handed over a letter written by Shehbaz,
In the letter, the PML-N vice president said that he had provided a comprehensive proposal to achieve consensus on the bills. "Unfortunately, no response was received from your side which creates doubts about your intentions," he said.
"Instead of considering our proposal to achieve consensus on the bills, late last night we received less than 16 hours notice from your office that the joint sitting of Parliament had been called to meet at 12pm today. Is this how consensus on issues of national importance is achieved?" he asked.
He said that the bills being considered today included amendments to the election laws. "We want to remind you that in the history of Pakistan, legislation regarding elections has never been done in this unilateral manner; election laws have always been made with extensive consultation and consensus with all parties in parliament," Shehbaz said.
"Your partisan conduct in handling these bills of national importance and the joint sitting removed our confidence in you as custodian of the House. We therefore demand that you take immediate action to rectify this egregious wrong before today's joint sitting is convened," he wrote.
Fawad hopeful for law on voting rights for overseas Pakistanis
Ahead of the much-anticipated session, the information minister was hopeful that lawmakers would pass a law to grant voting rights to overseas Pakistanis.
Taking to Twitter, Chaudhry said that the ruling PTI would complete another one of its election promises once this is done.
"The laws on electronic voting machines (EVMs) and voting rights for overseas Pakistanis will prove to be a milestone in strengthening democracy in Pakistan," he said.
The government's confidence comes after assurances of support from its coalition partners. The PTI government's disgruntled allies — the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) — decided on Tuesday to vote for the bills to be tabled in the joint session after their concerns were addressed by PM Imran.
The premier spent a busy day at the Parliament House, meeting a number of parliamentarians hailing from the PTI, MQM, PML-Q and the Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA), who assured him of their support in getting the bills passed.
Meanwhile, PPP Senator Sherry Rehman said that a "manufactured majority" in parliament starts to cripple the system.
"So much arm-twisting going on in the capital right now by the shaky 'government' that Islamabad’s orthopedic surgeons should be on alert. The opposition is united and picking up steam," she said.
Joint session to take up more than 2 dozen bills
President Dr Arif Alvi has formally convened the joint session to take up more than two dozen crucial bills.
Opposition members, who last week defeated the government twice in the National Assembly during voting on two motions for the admissibility of the bills, seem to be less enthusiastic and disappointed this time, apparently due to the developments that took place in the last five days and after the government’s decision to put off the joint sitting at the last minute which it had called for Nov 11.
Realising the fact that it could face difficulties in getting the bills passed from the joint sitting due to the reservations of its allies, the government intelligently engaged the opposition through National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser in order to get some time to manage its allies and convince them for the vote.
It may be recalled that the government had previously postponed the joint sitting after its allies, particularly the PML-Q and the MQM, expressed their reservations over the proposed electoral reforms bills regarding the use of electronic voting machine (EVM) and the introduction of i-voting for overseas Pakistanis in the next elections.
The party position in the parliament shows that the treasury has a majority of just two votes if the two houses are combined together. According to party position, the number of opposition members in the 440-member joint house comes to 219 against 221 treasury members.
The data shows that the ruling coalition enjoys a majority of 17 votes in the National Assembly whereas in the Senate it lags behind the opposition by 15 votes.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari rushed to Islamabad on Tuesday evening, whereas his father, MNA Asif Ali Zardari, is already in the capital.
Sources in the PPP told Dawn that at least three of its members would not be able to attend the joint session. Veteran party leader Syed Naveed Qamar and Senator Sikandar Mandhro would not attend the sitting due to illness whereas another veteran PPP MNA Nawab Yousuf Talpur is in London.
Similarly, PML-N’s Shaista Pervez Malik is also expected to miss the session, as she is observing iddat due to the death of her husband, Pervaiz Malik, who was also a party MNA.
A group of six independents, who had opted to sit on the opposition benches at the time of the nomination of PPP’s Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani as the opposition leader in the Senate, are also expected to vote for the treasury. A senior PPP leader told Dawn the members of the group had not attended the recent meetings of the opposition parties.
If these senators, led by Dilawar Khan, did not side with the opposition, it would provide another opportunity to the PML-N and the JUI-F to criticise the PPP, as the party had quit the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance due to the differences on the nomination of Gilani with the support of the six independent senators, most of them had been sitting on the treasury benches prior to the Senate elections in March.
Heads of the component parties of the opposition PDM in a meeting on Monday had expressed concern over reports that the state institutions were “forcing” the government’s allies to vote for the government-proposed controversial bills.
“The PDM does not approve of this kind of interference from the state institutions and considers such an act violation of the Constitution,” said the statement issued after the PDM meeting.
The PDM leaders warned the state institutions to remain within their constitutional limits and “don’t test the patience of the people”.