In a house of 96 members, the government needed at least 64 members to achieve two-thirds majority to allow the 26th constitutional amendment to be passed.
The government was all but assured of receiving 63 votes for its much hyped amendment after it reached a consensus with the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islam. This number included the following:
The four independents who voted for the amendment included Faisal Vawda, Abdul Qadir, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar and Mohsin Naqvi.
However, just as the Senate session began, Senators Muhammad Qasim Rojhan and Senator Naseema Ehsan, both belonging to the Balochistan National Party, arrived in the Parliament House in white vehicles.
BNP chief Akhtar Mengal had named both of these Senators in a post on X on October 16 where he revealed that his apartment in parliament lodges had been raided.
Mengal had claimed that Ehsan’s son had been ‘abducted’ and she was confined to her apartment. He had also claimed that Rojhan had been ‘untraceable’ since he went for a dialysis appointment.
Ehsan had appeared in the Senate on October 17 to state, in a clearly emotional voice, that better ways must be found to do things.
As late as Sunday afternoon, Mengal told reporters that he had no idea where both of his Senators were.
Both Senators were hounded by reporters as they disembarked from their cars at the Parliament House.
While Rojhan, visibly weakened and supporting himself with a cane was helped into a wheelchair, Ehsan just strode forward trying to escape reporters. As they eventually caught up to her, she simply responded that she would not have been in the parliament if she was abducted.
With Ehsan and Rojhan’s votes counted, the government took its tally to 65, gaining two-thirds majority for the passage of the amendments.
