Government, opposition nearing consensus on 20th Amendment

After holding detailed negotiations, the government and opposition parties on Wednesday said to have broken the impasse on the 20^th Amendment, claiming they had moved a step closer to reaching an accord.

The two parties claimed that the stalemate, which has thus far prevented the presenting of the 20^th amendment in parliament, had been broken and a final decision would be taken after consultation with their top leaderships.

According to the media reports, the incumbent has shown consent in formation of an independent caretaker set-up by consulting the opposition parties.

The two parties, led by opposition leader in the National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan and Minister for Religious Affairs Syed Khurshid Shah, respectively, held a round of talks on the third consecutive day to bridge their differences on the matter.

The amendment’s passage from parliament is must to protect legislators who had been elected to assemblies during by-polls under an ‘incomplete’ Election Commission.

Khurshid Shah said that they would soon inform the nation about outcome of negotiations. He stated, “After taking the party’s leadership into confidence he will reveal the end results of the negotiations. We have made enough and meaningful progress in the dialogue.”

Khurshid Shah said that progress had been made towards developing a consensus over the 20th amendment. “There is no deadlock between the government and the opposition on the 20th Amend. Progress has been made in talks on the issue, while things will be fully finalised in a day or so.”

However, Chaudhry Nisar has said that a final decision was yet to be made in this regard. The National Assembly Wednesday once again deferred the bill of 20th Constitutional Amendment Bill.

Nisar Ali Khan observed, “The contentious issue of a caretaker set-up to hold the next general elections has been resolved. Tomorrow (Thursday) will be a make or break day for these talks. It is premature to talk about the bill before it was passed by parliament.”

The opposition leader further said that action should be taken against the chief election commissioner for conducting the by-elections under an incomplete Election Commission, which had resulted in suspension of 28 members of parliament.

He held the government and chief election commissioner responsible for the suspension of MPs’ memberships. He said JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had given him a complete mandate to negotiate with the government on the 20th Amendment.

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Posted by Faisal Farooq on Feb 9 2012. Filed under Pakistan, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.