ISLAMABAD: The government will table the 27th Constitutional Amendment for approval from the Senate and the National Assembly. It will need two thirds majority in both the house for the purpose – 64 votes in the Senate and 224 votes in the National Assembly.
Let’s have a look at the situation in the upper and lower houses of parliament:
SENATE
In the 96-member Senate, the ruling coalition is led by the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) with 26 votes, followed by the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) with 21. The Mutahidda Qaumi Movement (MQM) and the Awami National Party (ANP) have three members each.
The National Party, the PML-Q and six independent senators are also aligned with the ruling alliance as a result of which it has 65 members.
On the other hand, the opposition includes the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) with 22 members, the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) with seven members, and the Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) and the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) with one senator each, bringing the total number of senators to 31.
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
The National Assembly has a total strength of 336. But with 10 seats currently vacant, the House consists of 326 members. To pass a constitutional amendment, the support of 224 members is required.
At present, the ruling coalition, including the PPP, has the backing of 237 members. Within the coalition, the PML-N is the largest party with 125 members, followed by the PPP with 74 members, the MQM with 22, the PML-Q with five, and the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) with four members.
Additionally, one member each from the PML-Zia, the Balochistan Awami Party (BAP), and the National Party, along with four independents, also support the government.
On the opposition benches, there are 89 members in total, including 75 independents, 10 members of the JUI-F, and one member each from the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC), the Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM), the BNP-Mengal, and the Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP).
