Allies' concerns addressed, parliament's joint session on Wednesday: Fawad

Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said on Monday all concerns of the coalition partners of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have been addressed by Prime Minister Imran Khan, adding that the joint session of the parliament has been called on Wednesday to pass the electoral reforms bill.

“The coalition parties have also expressed confidence in the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan,” Fawad told media after the premier's meeting with the PTI's coalition partners earlier.

Last week, the government put off a joint session of Parliament within 24 hours of its summoning due to a lack of required numbers of its lawmakers and reservations relayed by its own allies.

In yet another attempt to reach across the political aisle and persuade allies for the passage of the controversial Elections (Second Amendment) Bill, 2021, the beleaguered ruling party is asking its lawmakers in both houses to gear up for the upcoming session.

According to sources, the government is now holding talks with its allies as well to back its electoral reforms. They said that the government’s ally, Pakistan Muslim League (PML-Q), has given green signal to support the government on the legislation for electoral reforms in joint-sitting of the Parliament.

They said that by summoning the joint sitting, the government wanted to control the embarrassment it suffered after postponing the joint session a day before it was scheduled.

The government’s allies, PML-Q, MQM Pakistan, GDA, and Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), were reported to have serious reservations about the functioning of the government and none of them assured the ruling party of voting for the government bills in the joint sitting.

The sources said that the leadership of the ruling party asked its allies to express their point of view, about the bills, by Monday so that a decision could be taken about the summoning of the joint sitting this week.

In case the allies do not give assurances, the government will shelve the idea of legislating on its own. However, the government will urge the opposition to bring the bills of its choice.

However, on the other hand, the opposition parties, already scrambling to formulate a joint strategy against the government inside the Parliament, have also urged their lawmakers to keep vigilant in case any urgent joint session of the parliament is called.

According to sources, parliamentarians from all major opposition parties, including Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) have been directed to stay in Islamabad.

Govt postpones joint session of the parliament

Earlier this month, PML-Q, skipped the luncheon hosted by Prime Minister Imran Khan at the PM's Office in honour of leaders of allied political parties of his government, despite initially accepting the invitation.

The sources told Business Recorder that allied parties complained to the prime minister against non-provision of development funds and lack of uplift schemes in their constituencies.

The Minister for Inter-provincial Coordination, Dr Fehmida Mirza, regretted that neither the federal nor the Sindh government had undertaken any mega project in Sindh, which had created unrest among the people who voted for the resolution of their problems.

"It is inappropriate to ignore elected parliamentarians in the federal government's plans," she added, highlighting her concerns regarding Sindh's issues and the injustices of the PPP-led provincial setup.

According to the sources, the PML-F also joined in expressing reservations over the neglect felt by the people of Sindh.

Electoral reforms bills: Joint sitting of parliament likely during this week

"We are your allies, but the government is doing nothing whenever they needed some help or projects about our constituencies," Pir Pagara was quoted as telling the PM.

The MQM-P and the GDA also opened up about their views regarding the Government of Sindh, noting that the PPP had control of each department of the province. The coalition members further alleged that the bureaucracy of Sindh was running federal projects according to the PPP's own whims and wishes.

The MQM-P, while expressing reservations regarding the implementation of the Karachi Transformation Plan (KTP), demanded that the promises made to the southern port city be fulfilled.

Work on the KTP is going at a snail's pace, the MQM leaders complained to the PM, adding the people of Karachi were being affected due to the Sindh government's non-cooperation.

The MQM-P accused the Sindh government of nepotism with regard to Ehsaas programme and disbursements from Pakistan Baitul Mal, saying only those the provincial government favoured or knew, were being rewarded.

PML-Q leaders skip luncheon hosted by PM

The Sindh government is deliberately ignoring our constituencies, the MQM-P leaders lamented, requesting the prime minister to consult the coalition parties over federal projects.

Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui of the MQM-P raised the issue of missing party workers and Karachi-related cases. Those who attended the luncheon include Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani, Planning Minister Asad Umar, and Usman Buzdar, Jam Kamal Khan, and Mahmood Khan - the respective chief ministers of Punjab, Balochistan, and the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.

The coalition members told the PM that it should be the top-most priority of the government or else things would go from bad to worse as people were having serious issues due to inflation.

The premier agreed with the allies, and said drastic measures would be taken to tackle inflation, adding his government was working regularly to control inflation, the economic indicators were improving rapidly, and the exports had also increased.

From MQM-P, Dr Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, Syed Aminul Haq, and Kishwar Zehra attended the luncheon. On the other hand, the GDA delegation was led by Dr Fehmida Mirza. Members from the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) and the Awami Muslim League also attended the luncheon.