Federal cabinet meeting on 27th Amendment delayed 

Islamabad (Web Desk): The federal cabinet meeting scheduled to be held today (Friday) under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has been postponed.

The meeting was expected to approve the draft of the 27th Constitutional Amendment, which will now likely be taken up in the coming days.

According to sources, the reasons behind the postponement have not yet been disclosed.

However, cabinet members have been officially informed about the delay.

The meeting was set to deliberate on key government matters and proposed constitutional changes, including consultations on the draft of the 27th Amendment.

It is worth mentioning that the proposed amendment seeks to introduce certain changes to the Constitution, requiring input from the government and other relevant stakeholders. The new date for the cabinet meeting is expected to be announced in the next few days

Earlier on Thursday night, 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.

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.

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.

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).