Law Minister Azam Nazeer again tabled the 27th Constitutional Amendment bill for consideration in the Senate on Thursday, a day after the National Assembly (NA) passed it with some changes and referred it back to the upper house of Parliament.According to the day’s agenda, Tarar will also move the motion for the passage of the bill today.The session began with Senate Deputy Chairman Syedaal Khan Nasar presiding over the proceedings and the question hour.

While the question hour was under way, Senate Chairman Yousuf Raza Gilani spoke to the media at Parliament, where he said, “We have already made improvements in the bill that the opposition wanted.” He was also about Saifullah Abro, a PTI member who defied his party’s policy by voting in favour of the amendment when the bill was initially tabled in the Senate on Monday and later announced his resignation on the floor of the same day. 

In his response, Gilani said after formally receiving Abro’s resignation in writing, he would call him and maybe, “I am able to convince him”.Later, Gilani joined the proceedings in the Senate and chaired the session. Yesterday, a revised draft of the 27th Amendment bill was passed by the NA during a session attended by political bigwigs and marred by noisy protests and a walkout by opposition lawmakers. The bill had 59 clauses and eight were changed in the final draft tabled before the lower house of Parliament.

The draft was slightly different from the one initially passed by the Senate on Monday. The fresh changes are mostly related to the chief justice of Pakistan.  At the outset, the NA proceedings moved forward smoothly, and several MNAs, including opposition alliance leader Mehmood Khan Achakzai, spoke on the floor of the house. The situation began turning chaotic when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, his brother and PML-N President Nawaz Sharif and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari arrived in the hall.

At this point, PTI lawmakers started chanting slogans targeting the PML-N leaders and against the constitutional amendment. During the protest, PML-N MNAs made a shield in front of the PM and Nawaz Sharif to prevent the PTI members from approaching the premier and the party chief. Similarly, the security guards of the Parliament House also came closer to the PM for his security. The protest also disrupted the law minister’s and the PPP chief’s speeches, and the opposition members tore up the copies of the bill and flung them towards the PM’s chair. 

Interestingly, PTI firebrand leader Sher Afzal Marwat did not join the protest and remained seated even after the opposition MNAs walked out of the house in protest. Later, he went directly to PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari to meet him and listened to the PM’s speech. As the premier spoke in the house, PTI MNA Iqbal Khan Afridi again entered the house with a banner in his hands, which carried the portrait of PTI founder Imran Khan. He went to the speaker’s dais and kept displaying the banner to the PM throughout his speech.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)