Proposed legislation agreed with IMF: Government hamstrung by lack of needed numbers in Senate

The government does not have a majority in the upper house for approval of legislation agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with respect to amendment to the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP), National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), passage of State-Owned Enterprise law, and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Acts.
The IMF structural benchmark requires government to submit, in consultation with IMF staff, by end-September 2019, (i) a new State-Owned Enterprise law to improve governance and transparency in line with the IMF recommendations; (ii) to submit to parliament by end-October 2019 measures to strengthen the effectiveness of the AML/CFT framework to support the country''s efforts to exit the Financial Action Task Force list of jurisdictions with serious deficiencies; and to submit by end December (iii) amendments to the State Bank of Pakistan Act to address all recommendations of the new 2019 safeguards assessment report and 2016 technical assistance report on central bank reform; and (iv) amendments to NEPRA Act to ensure full automaticity of quarterly tariff adjustment and eliminate the gap between regular annual tariff determination and notification by the government.
A legislation proposed by the government designed to amend AML Act 2010 has been pending with the National Assembly''s Finance Committee primarily because of resistance by the opposition parties'' in the relevant committee.
A senior official of the Finance Ministry on condition of anonymity said that the government would need support from opposition members in the senate to push through the legislation to achieve the agreed benchmark of the Extended Fund Facility. As per the IMF staff report "the effectiveness of Pakistan''s AML/CFT regime must be urgently strengthened to support its exit from the Financial Action Task Force list of jurisdictions with serious deficiencies" and adds that "the authorities will work with technical assistance providers, including the IMF, to complete the action plan and further strengthen the effectiveness of the AML/CFT regime."
The government requires a simple majority in both the houses (National Assembly and Senate) to pass legislation and as it does not have majority in the upper house, it can exercise the option to convene a joint sitting of the House to push through any law. In the 342-member National Assembly, the PTI-led ruling coalition''s numerical strength is 180 which is 8 seats more than the required simple majority of 172 seats in the lower house of the Parliament. It has 156 seats, MQM 6, Pakistan Muslim League Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q) 5, Balochistan Awami Party (BAP) 5, BNP-Mengal 4, Grand Democratic Alliance (GDA) 3 seats and Awami Muslim League (AML) has one seat.
The PTI-led coalition government has only 38 members, including its coalition partners, in the 104-member Upper House of Parliament while joint opposition has 65 members excluding Ishaq Dar who has yet to take oath. If a bill is rejected by any House, the government can then convene a joint session of the Parliament to get a legislative bill passed, but again it will have to prove a simple majority. If the joint session meets with its full strength (all Senators and Member National Assembly are present) the government will have to show support of at least 224 members out of 446 members of Parliament to get a bill passed.
In case of a joint session, the PTI will have support of 218 members, (180+38) and falls short by 6 members to prove its simple majority unless it resorts to horse trading. According to the rules, a legislative bill needs to be passed by both the Houses separately with a simple majority, and with its current numerical strength the PTI cannot get a bill passed through the Senate without support of at least one major opposition party - PPP or PML-N.
However, according to the rules, simple majority is required among those lawmakers who are present on the floor of house at the time of voting on any bill except constitutional amendment bill which requires two-third majority.