ISLAMABAD: On Wednesday (today), a joint session of the parliament will take place in Islamabad at the parliament house. It is said that the government will successfully pass all the bills with the help of its allies.
The session has been called on by President Arif Alvi today at 12 pm.
Meanwhile, the government hopes to pass more than two dozen bills with the help of its allied parties, while the opposition parties have pledged to counter the treasury’s attempt to get ‘the black laws’ passed at all costs.
Earlier, the National Assembly referred the bills to the joint sitting after those were not satisfied within the stipulated 90 days.
PTI’s position
The government needs a simple majority in the joint sitting of houses currently having a total strength of 440 members (341 MNAs and 99 Senators) to get the bills passed without any hurdle.
According to data, the government currently enjoys the support of a minimum of 221 parliamentarians, including 179 MNAs and 42 senators.
However, the treasury benches have two votes edge over the opposition parties jointly. 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 stand with the 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.
On the other hand, the PML-Q which is represented by five members of the National Assembly and one Senator was yet to officially announce its support to the controversial legislation.
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.
Opposition to give tough time to govt
Meanwhile, the joint opposition is ready to give a tough time to the government in today’s sitting and stop it from legislating on “black laws”.
The decision was taken 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.
“The government has pushed the country towards an economic decline and the masses are burdened with inflation,” Shehbaz Sharif said.
The opposition leader said the government could not save itself through its “black laws” as it is “no better than a crumbling wall”.
While denouncing the government on its pressure tactics, PPP’s parliamentary leader in the Senate Senator Sherry Rehman said this joint session will be a historical one.
“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.
On the other hand, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had said the PTI-led government was putting pressure on 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.
