Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held meetings with the delegations of multiple parties on Thursday in what appears to be efforts by the government to prepare the ground to get a 27th Constitutional Amendment approved by Parliament.
Among those he met was a seven-member delegation of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), which was led by party Convener Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui.
A statement by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said “discussion and consultation took place on the proposed 27th Constitutional Amendment” during the meeting.
The delegation also included Sindh Governor Kamran Khan Tessori, Health Minister Syed Mustafa Kamal, Members of National Assembly Dr Farooq Sattar, Jawed Hanif Khan, Syed Aminul Haque and Khawaja Izharul Hassan, the statement added.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, National Assembly Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar, Economic Affairs Minister Ahad Khan Cheema, Information and Broadcasting Minister Attaullah Tarar, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Tariq Fazal Chaudhry and Adviser to the Prime Minister Rana Sanaullah were also present in the meeting.
They were also present in PM Shehbaz’s meetings with the delegations of the Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP) and Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q).
A separate PMO statement said party President and Federal Minister for Communications Abdul Aleem Khan and Minister of State for Overseas Pakistanis Aun Chaudhry were part of the IPP delegation that held a meeting with PM Shehbaz and discussed the proposed 27th Amendment.
Another statement by the PMO said the premier also met a delegation of the PML-Q, which was led by Minister for Overseas Pakistanis Chaudhry Salik Hussain, and discussed the proposed constitutional amendment.
The PML-Q delegation also included Senator Kamil Ali Agha and MNAs Mohammad Ilyas Choudhary and Farukh Khan.
A day earlier, the MQM-P had demanded that local governments (LGs) be given autonomy in the proposed 27th Constitutional Amendment after the PPP revealed key features of the proposed amendment for which the PML-N-led government sought its support.
The party said that after provincial autonomy had been granted under the 18th Amendment of 2010, the “next step naturally is local autonomy, so it’s turn must come”.
“The important thing that we also said at the time of the 26th Amendment, that our constitutional amendment package be included,” MQM-P leader Farooq Sattar said yesterday during a presser, referring to its agreement with the PML-N to empower local governments.
“But it did not happen,” he lamented, calling for the matter to be included in the 27th Amendment.
The PML-N and the MQM-P had signed a memorandum of understanding in March 2024 under which LGs would directly draw powers from the federation instead of provinces.
When talks of the 26th Amendment gained momentum, the MQM-P also tied its support for the legislation to the inclusion of LG-related provisions. However, the final version — passed with MQM-P lawmakers voting in its favour — featured no such provisions.
Sattar contended that the Constitution’s Article 140A, which provides that the provinces will establish LGs, needed to be amended so that laws enacted by local bodies would not contradict it.
“The Constitution is a sacred document, but not a divine scripture; it is a living document,” the MNA contended. He added that it should not bring worry or surprise if amendments were needed in it “as per the requirements of the time and situation, and for the country’s stability”.
He also voiced support for constitutional courts, which were initially planned to be formed through the 26th Amendment, but only constitutional benches were established in the end.
Meanwhile, about the proposed Constitutional tweaks, Siddiqui said during the presser that “we are only telling the key features, and have presented what the government told us and what we understood.
“Even from us, especially Article 243 … this year has created the need for it to be harmonised with national unity, strong defence, and modern requirements of defence,” he said, referring to the provision related to the command of armed forces.
Siddiqui called for local governments to also be “considered a government”, with the Constitution guaranteeing nazims and mayors’ elections and tenures, without the prime minister needing to issue orders for it.
“The Constitution should decide that. The Supreme Court should monitor it,” the education minister said, proposing a caretaker set-up for the two roles.
