ISLAMABAD: The 22nd amendment bill has been deferred in the Senate because of the absence of the required majority needed to pass the bill. The bill has been passed by the parliament on 19 May and now has to be submitted to Senate for approval.
Pakistan people’s Party (PPP) Senator Babar Awan said that federal ministers don’t give importance to the upper house and even if they remain present they don’t give satisfactory answers. “We stage a walk out under protest against this attitude,” he said before walking out along with other. Soon after the walk out, several federal ministers turned up at the Senate.
The National Assembly had passed the constitutional amendment bill unanimously on Thursday with two-third majority according to the eligibility criteria for appointment of Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and members of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
In another development, the senate has approved the bill related to the creation of the Terms of References (TORs) committee to investigate the Panama leaks allegations. The opposition has decided to write two separate letters to the parliament and Senate. The opposition will submit three names to the National Assembly speaker and three names to the chairman of Senate. According to the sources, the three names to be sent to the speaker are Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Tariq ullah and Tariq Basheer Cheema, while the three names to be sent to the Seante include Aitzaz Ahsan, Barrister Saif and Illyas Bilour.
Raza Rabbani said that this issue is corruption related so he would not be a hurdle in its proceedinngs.
PPP, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Muttahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM), Pakhtoonkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-F (JUI-F) and FATA senators staged a walk out from Senate on Friday after they did not get a reply to their questions from treasury benches particularly Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal. He was not present in the Senate when JUI-F Senator Talha Mehmood asked question on the number of Chinese nationals working in different projects of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
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