27th Amendment: PPP CEC rejects proposed changes to NFC Award 

Karachi (Web Desk): The Central Executive Committee (CEC) of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has rejected the proposed revisions to the National Finance Commission (NFC) Award that are part of the suggested 27th Constitutional Amendment, asserting that any measure reducing provincial autonomy will not be acceptable.

Addressing a press conference after a late-night meeting of the PPP CEC Thursday, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, alongside senior party leaders, announced that the PPP had unanimously rejected the proposed changes.

“The PPP will not agree to any alteration in the NFC formula,” Bilawal stated.

The high-level meeting was held to deliberate on the government’s draft for the 27th Amendment, which aims to introduce a Constitutional Court, modify Article 243—dealing with the armed forces’ supreme command—and make adjustments to various constitutional provisions, including the NFC Award.

Bilawal said that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had personally approached the PPP to seek consensus on these proposals.

He confirmed that while the PPP CEC had approved changes to Article 243, all other recommendations were turned down.

The PPP chief added that the party would finalize its stance on the proposed Constitutional Court after Friday prayers in another meeting.

The CEC meeting , presided over by President Asif Ali Zardari and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, was attended by federal and provincial ministers from Sindh and Balochistan, as well as governors representing Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and Gilgit-Baltistan.

According to sources, several senior PPP leaders voiced serious concerns over multiple clauses of the proposed amendment.

They stressed that the party must stand firm on protecting Article 160(3A) and the existing NFC framework, and should not allow any revision that weakens the financial autonomy of the provinces.

As per the party insiders, most CEC members also spoke against any modifications to the schedules introduced under the 18th Amendment.

Before the meeting, PPP’s Shazia Marri reaffirmed that her party would not support any constitutional change that attempts to undo the provincial empowerment achieved through the 18th Amendment.

Parliamentary numbers indicate that the ruling coalition currently has a total of 237 members in the National Assembly, comfortably surpassing the 224 votes required to pass a constitutional amendment.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leads with 125 seats, followed by the PPP with 74, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement – Pakistan (MQM-P) with 22, the Pakistan Muslim League-Quaid (PML-Q) with 5, the Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party (IPP) with 4, and one member each from the Pakistan Muslim League-Zia (PML-Z), National Party (NP), and Balochiastan Awami Party BAP, along with four independents.

In the Senate, the government bloc holds 61 seats against the opposition’s 35.

To ensure the amendment’s passage in the upper house, the ruling alliance will need 64 votes, requiring support from at least three senators belonging to the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) or Awami National Party (ANP).