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After PTI, BNP-M claims lawmakers under pressure to vote for ‘constitutional package’
Nadir GuramaniSeptember 14, 2024
![In this file photo, BNP-M chief Akhtar Mengal speaks at the National Press Club in Quetta. — White Star In this file photo, BNP-M chief Akhtar Mengal speaks at the National Press Club in Quetta. — White Star](https://i.dawn.com/primary/2024/09/14141656f8fba6c.jpg)
In this file photo, BNP-M chief Akhtar Mengal speaks at the National Press Club in Quetta. — White Star
The chief of the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M), Akhtar Mengal, has claimed that two senators of his party were being “pressurised” to vote in favour of a highly anticipated “constitutional package”.
The “constitutional package” is a set of proposed amendments to the Constitution that aims to — among other things — fix the tenure of the chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) at three years.
With sessions of both houses of the parliament summoned this evening (Saturday) with only an hour’s gap, the legislation seems set to be introduced in the parliament today.
A constitutional amendment is passed or rejected through open ballot, in which those who go against their parties’ stance cannot conceal their vote.
While speaking to DawnNewsTV programme Doosra Rukh on Friday, the BNP-M leader said that the houses of two of his party’s senators were being raided.
“There is Senator Muhammad Qasim whose house was raided and even now, in Karachi, intelligence agencies’ cars are patrolling his house,” Mengal alleged.
“Our second senator Nasima Ehsaan has said that her relatives and her husband are being pressurised,” he added.
He said Ehsaan was threatened that her property would be confiscated, adding that the government was only having “this kind of communication” with the party.
“But no formal communication took place,” the BNP-M chief said.
Mengal added that the government wanted to bring about the constitutional amendment by either keeping the people unaware of it or by using force.
Opposition parties — including the PTI, BNP-M and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) — have warned their members that they could be unseated from parliament if they voted in favour of the proposed constitutional package.
Speaking to reporters, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan stated that since there was no cabinet meeting to approve the constitutional package, it could not legally be presented in the National Assembly.
“According to Rules 16 and 27 of the Rules of Business, the government has to move the bill through the parliament and ministry of law and then present it to the cabinet,” Gohar said. “If the cabinet approves the bill, it has to be approved by the PM and be presented to parliament.”
“However, there was no cabinet meeting to approve the bill, nor was it on the agenda,” he argued. “The bill therefore cannot be moved; it is illegal and contravenes the Rules of Business and the Constitution.”
The PTI chairman lamented that the opposition had “demanded that the government make legislation in the open,” but they were not doing that.
Earlier this week, senior PTI leader Asad Qaiser accused the government of using strong-arm tactics to bully its opponents into supporting the constitutional package, hours before before police took the PTI’s top leadership into custody over a case pertaining to its Sept 8 rally.
Speaking on a point of order in the NA on Monday, Qaiser had said his party’s lawmakers were being “coerced” to support the government’s legislative package and asked deputy speaker Ghulam Mustafa Shah to intervene.
“We have been receiving complaints from our MNAs. They are constantly receiving threats. They are being coerced to support a legislative package which the government is bringing [to the parliament],” said Qaiser, who had served as the NA speaker during the Imran Khan government.
He had also alleged that some opposition members were being lured with different offers.