The standing committees on law and justice of both houses of Parliament convened a joint session on Sunday to further discuss the proposed 27th Constitutional Amendment bill.
Yesterday, the Constitution (Twenty-Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2025 was tabled in the Senate hours after being approved by the federal cabinet, sparking vociferous protests from the opposition over the pace and scope of the proposed changes.
The bill proposes the creation of a Federal Constitutional Court (FCC), changes to the appointment process for high court judges, a higher limit for provincial cabinets, and changes to the military leadership structure.
Chairman of the Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice, Senator Farooq H. Naek, and his counterpart on the National Assembly panel, MP Chaudhry Mahmood Bashir Virk, co-chaired today’s meeting.
The standing committees are also likely to finalize the mechanism for transfer of high court judges through the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP), a process that may not require consent of the transferring judges.
While the Senate was still in session yesterday, the committees held a closed-door joint meeting to consider the bill. The meeting was boycotted by PTI legislators as well as Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) MNA Aliya Kamran and Senator Kamran Murtaza.
The panels approved nearly 80 percent of the proposed bill, including most of the provisions of the judicial reform package.
But deliberations on the field marshal’s status under Article 243 (command of the armed forces) of the Constitution were postponed until today.
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar and State Minister for Law and Justice Advocate Aqeel Malik are among those participating in the meeting.
Tarar told reporters after yesterday’s meeting that all parliamentary parties were participating in the process and that the government had also “asked the opposition to contribute constructively.”
“We will meet again tomorrow (Sunday) morning at 11am and continue our discussions. And until we reach a consensus of all members of both Houses, the discussions will continue,” the Justice Minister had said.
The Senate will meet at 3:00 p.m.
Meanwhile, in another unusual move, the Senate will meet at 3pm today with a single-item agenda to “consider” the bill, demonstrating an extraordinary rush to pass the amendments.
PTI parliamentary leader Barrister Ali Zafar has maintained that the debate on the bill was inappropriate in the absence of a notified opposition leader. He accused the government and its allies of being in a “rush” to approve the amendments.
“These amendments attack the very foundations of the constitutional structure by undermining the independence of the judiciary and eroding the delicate balance of powers that the 1973 Constitution so carefully created,” he said. Sunrise.
However, the PML-N and the PPP have rejected the impression that the 27th Amendment bill has been rushed through without proper debate, saying the draft has been subjected to “extensive scrutiny”.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif held consultations with multiple ruling allies on Thursday, meeting top leaders of PML-Q, Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP), Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), Awami National Party (ANP) and PML-Zia.
However, no meeting between the government and the PTI was reported.
