Constitutional reforms: Committee may not finalise recommendations by December 31

The December 31 deadline for the Constitutional Reforms Committee to finalise and send its recommendations to the National Assembly for approval is unlikely to be met, informed sources told Business Recorder on Monday.
Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) senior leaders, including Mian Nawaz Sharif, had in the past stated that a commitment had been made by Pakistan People's Party Co-Chairman President Asif Ali Zardari to ensure the passage of the constitutional reforms by the end of 2009.
Talking to Business Recorder, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Parliamentary Affairs Izhar Imrohvi said that it was not possible to bring constitutional amendments in the next session of the parliament as there is no consensus yet on several clauses, other than the 17th amendment, between different political parties and provinces was ongoing.
He also ruled out any possibility of scrapping the 17th amendment separately, saying that other amendments were as important as this one, including provincial autonomy and renaming of the NWFP.
Izhar Imrohvi said that the Constitutional Reforms Committee had been working under Senator Raza Rabbani for the last many months, but some of its members were not regular in attending the meetings, which had slowed down the process. However, Imrohvi was reluctant to give any deadline for the completion of the process.
"There is a lot of work to be done as far as the recommendations for the constitutional reforms are concerned and it is not possible to complete them in the coming months," he said. Meanwhile, at a press conference, Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Siddiqul al-Farooq said that the PPP had sought more time for the amendments and his party had agreed in this regard. He, however, added that PML-N would evolve its future strategy if the PPP failed to bring consensus within the given timeframe.