The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf has claimed that they have been unable to establish contact with 11 of their parliamentarians, amidst ongoing discussions regarding 26th constitutional amendments, sources within the party said on Sunday.
The group includes two senators and nine members of the National Assembly.
Leader of the Opposition in NA Omar Ayub has also confirmed that he has been unable to reach seven of such members.
The members in question include Zain Qureshi, Zahoor Qureshi, and Aslam Ghuman, among others. Osman Ali, Riaz Fatyana, Muqaddas Hussain, Chaudhry Ilyas, Aurangzeb Khan Kachhi, and Mubarak Zain Khan have also not been reachable.
This comes moments before the Senate session, which is scheduled to meet at 3pm.
Described as the 26th constitutional amendment, the legislation aims to change the process of appointments of the chief justice of the Supreme Court.
A special parliamentary committee made a major breakthrough in the draft of the legislation as panel head Khursheed Shah announced that the committee has “unanimously” approved the draft.
In the recent past, BNP-M, JUI-F and the PTI have claimed that their lawmakers were pressurised to vote for the constitutional amendment bill.
“We have reports as our reconciliation process is not taken seriously. On one side, talks are under way and on the other hand our parliamentarians are harassed and abducted,” JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman told reporters in Islamabad after a meeting with a PTI delegation on October 18.
“One of JUI-F lawmakers is abducted and his children are at my home, another has been threatened, and another was offered money. If this thing continues and the government uses such tactics, then we will be compelled to stop the process of talks,” he said.
When asked if the government tried to resolve such concerns on Sunday, Fazl replied in negative.
Moreover, PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan had said that his party’s two senators might vote for the constitutional amendment bill.
“Dr Zarqa Suharwardy Taimur and Faisal Saleem Rahman are the two senators who might cast a vote in favour of the government’s constitutional amendment,” he told reporters.
