Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) supreme leader Nawaz Sharif on Friday, in a drastic change from the course his party took a day before in the matter concerning amendments in The Pakistan Army Act 1952, said “it was not in the interest of any party to show undue haste or to bulldoze the rules and procedures”.
“Such important bills cannot be passed in 24 or for that matter 48 hours,” Nawaz stated in a letter addressed to PML-N’s senior leader Khawaja Asif.
“We would like to look at the bill positively for stability in the country.”
Nawaz said the PML-N couldn’t “possibly allow the dignity of the Parliament to be compromised”. He suggested to stress upon the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government to adopt pre-parliamentary norms and laid down a schedule.
According to the schedule, the PML-N supremo stated that the bill be presented before the National Assembly on Jan 3 and referred to the concerned standing committee so that political parties could deliberate over recommendations in parliamentary meetings. The standing committee should consider the bill and send a report to the lower house on Jan 7-8. On Jan 9 and 10, NA should consider, debate and vote on the bill and forward it to Senate. On Jan 13, Senate should send the bill to its standing committee and on Jan 15, the Senate should debate and vote on the bill.
Nawaz maintained that this was the ‘minimum’ possible time-frame to pass the bill with “meaningful input”.
“We should also be cognizant of the fact that the Parliament should not be seen to rubber-stamp a bill of such importance,” he wrote and pointed out that the “political fallout for all parties will be substantial if parliamentary norms are not properly observed”.
PML-N leader Mian Javed Latif confirmed Nawaz’s letter and said the party’s plan of action will be taken in light of the party supremo’s directions.
He said the letter was drafted following a meeting of PML-N leaders in London also attended by party president Shehbaz Sharif.
