Joint Parliamentary Committee Approves Draft of Constitutional Amendment Bill

The Joint Parliamentary Committee has approved the draft of the constitutional amendment bill, although it still needs to be passed by the parliament.

After the meeting, PPP leader Farooq H. Naik spoke with the media, saying that some amendments had been made to the original draft, and the revised version was now approved. He further mentioned that the committee had granted both him and the Law Minister the authority to make changes to certain clauses. However, he clarified that the bill still needed to be approved by the parliament.

Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar confirmed that the committee meeting had concluded and the report would be presented in the parliament the next day. He also stated that it was up to the parliament to decide when the vote on the bill would take place.

In response to media queries during the break, Tarar mentioned that discussions had been held on increasing the number of seats for Balochistan and renaming Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to “Pukhtunkhwa.” Additionally, he noted that the proposal regarding the Prime Minister’s exemption had been withdrawn following instructions from Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif.

Tarar also added that discussions had taken place regarding MQM’s proposal for granting full autonomy to local governments, as well as a resolution from the Punjab Assembly. However, he noted that more time was needed for finalizing these proposals.