The standing committees on law and justice of both houses of Parliament convened a joint session on Sunday to further discuss the proposed bill for the 27th Constitutional Amendment.
Yesterday, the bill for Constitution (Twenty-Seventh Amendment) Act, 2025 was tabled before the Senate hours after it was approved by the federal cabinet, triggering noisy 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 cap on provincial cabinets, and changes to the military leadership structure.
Senate Standing Committee on Law and Justice Chairperson Senator Farooq H. Naek and his counterpart for the National Assembly panel, MNA Chaudhry Mahmood Bashir Virk, are co-chairing today’s meeting.
The standing committees are also likely to finalise the mechanism for the transfer of high court judges through the Judicial Commission of Pakistan (JCP) — a process which may not require the consent of the judges being transferred.
While the Senate was still in session yesterday, the committees held a joint in-camera meeting to consider the bill. The meeting was boycotted by PTI lawmakers, as well as Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl’s (JUI-F) MNA Aliya Kamran and Senator Kamran Murtaza.
The panels cleared nearly 80 per cent of the proposed bill, including most clauses of the judicial reforms package.
But deliberations on the field marshal’s status under Article 243 (command of the armed forces) of the Constitution were deferred to today.
Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar and Minister of State for Law and Justice Barrister 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 “requested the opposition to contribute constructively”.
“We will reconvene again tomorrow (Sunday) morning at 11am and continue our discussions. And till the time we do not reach a consensus, from all members of both Houses, the discussions will continue,” the law minister had said.
Senate to meet at 3pm
Meanwhile, in yet another rare move, the Senate will meet today at 3pm with a one-point agenda to “consider” the bill, demonstrating extraordinary haste to pass the amendments.
PTI parliamentary leader Barrister Ali Zafar has contended that the debate on the bill was inappropriate in the absence of a notified leader of the opposition. He accused the government and its allies of being in a “hurry” to pass the amendments.
“These amendments strike at the very foundation 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 told media.
However, the PML-N and the PPP have rejected the impression that the 27th Amendment bill was rushed through without proper debate, saying the draft has undergone “extensive scrutiny”.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had held consultations with multiple ruling allies on Thursday, meeting with the top leadership of the PML-Q, the Istehkam-i-Pakistan Party (IPP), the Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan (MQM-P), the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), the Awami National Party (ANP) and the PML-Zia.
However, no meeting was reported between the government and the PTI.
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