Another bid to woo Fazl to be made after legislative embarrassment

ISLAMABAD: The PMLN government is hugely embarrassed for its failure to get through judiciary related constitutional amendments and the blame for this situation has been laid at the doors of two ministers — Mohsin Naqvi and Azam Nazir Tarar.

What was required to have been done discreetly was opened up before the TV camera prematurely, which ended up in a great mess for the government. While the PPP, other coalition partners and even most of the PMLN leaders were thinking and were given the impression that Maulana Fazlur Rehman is on board, they were shocked when Maulana asked for the proposed amendment package for review.

Mohsin Naqvi and Azam Nazir Tarar were tasked to hold negotiations with Moulana and get him onboard for the constitutional amendment. It was not kept secret and became public prematurely because of inexperience of both Naqvi and Tarar in such matters of political wheeling dealing.

Ishaq Dar was involved later, prime minister also rushed to Maulana’s residence, Presidency also moved and Bilawal too visited the JUIF chief but nothing worked for the government. In such matters, according to government sources, things are opened up only after everything gets final. However, in this case without getting any deal done with Maulana, the National Assembly and Senate sessions were called.

The constitutional amendment package was initially supposed to be tabled on Wednesday last but it got delayed as the homework for the number game was not completed. The required PTI votes were secure but in the case of Maulana it was completely messed up leading to extreme embarrassment for the government and PMLN in particular.

According to a PMLN source now it will be very difficult to woo Maulana but another source said that hectic efforts will be made to get the job done. The source said that the government has no option but to achieve the target to avoid a heavy cost for the ruling party and Shehbaz government.

“Even after the weekend‘s mess we can’t afford to leave the issue as dead. We have no option but to carry out these amendments within a fortnight time,” said the PMLN leader. “We had the number, we had the offers on the table but the matter got delayed because of Maulana,” said the source, adding that the government can’t afford to leave the issue dead.

The source believed that the future of Shehbaz Sharif government and political stability depend on these amendments. “We are not concerned about Justice Mansoor Ali Shah becoming the Chief Justice, there are some other matters that bothers us,” said the source.

The PMLN and the PPP, the source said will make all our efforts to win the support of Maulana. “We have offers of KP governorship, a few slots in the federal cabinet for the JUIF,“ said the source, adding that giving two Senators to JUIF is also under consideration.