ISLAMABAD: Though political parties have finally agreed on the draft of the constitution amendment bill seeking the much-awaited merger of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the main challenge for them now is to ensure presence of the required number of two-thirds members in the National Assembly to get it passed.

As per the agreement between the government and the opposition parties, the bill has been placed on the agenda issued for Thursday’s session, background interviews with a number of parliamentarians reveal that there is uncertainty in their ranks over the passage of the bill on Thursday due to the quorum syndrome that has been haunting the lower house for the last two weeks.

The official record of the members’ attendance shows that on average, 175 members have attended the last 10 sittings of the assembly, including a maximum presence of 222 members on May 15 and 208 on May 18 when the house passed the federal budget.

According to the constitution, a constitutional amendment bill can only be passed with a vote of 228 members, two-third of the 342-member National Assembly, and political experts believe ensuring this number will be a daunting task not only for the government, but also for the opposition parties.

When contacted, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MNA Shafqat Mehmood said the party had issued directives to all its members to ensure their presence in the assembly so that the bill could be passed smoothly. He, however, said it was mainly the responsibility of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) to ensure passage of the bill without any hurdle.

Asked if PTI chairman Imran Khan would attend the session on Thursday, Mr Mehmood remained non-committal. Mr Khan’s attendance record is the poorest among all MNAs during the past five years.

The other parties believe that Mr Khan, who has been forcefully demanding the merger of Fata with KP and has even threatened to launch protest on the issue, must attend the sitting to prove his sincerity on the matter.

Talking to Dawn, PPP’s parliamentary leader Syed Naveed Qamar also expressed doubt that they would be able to get the bill passed on Thursday. He said he had contacted the PPP MNAs and they had assured him that they would be present in the house. However, he said, the main challenge was for the ruling party.

Mr Qamar said in the past few weeks, several PML-N legislators had quit the party and joined other parties and it would be interesting to see how many members the ruling party would bring to the house.

He said it was a big challenge for the government as its two allies – the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) and Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) – had decided to oppose the bill.

The bill is being tabled at a time when the tenure of the National Assembly is to end after eight days.

The government has also summoned the session of the Senate on Thursday and the bill, if passed by the National Assembly, would be placed before the upper house on Friday (tomorrow).

Another daunting task for the political leadership is to get the bill passed with a two-third vote in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly before expiry of its term on May 28, three days before the National Assembly’s dissolution.

As per Article 239(4) of the Constitution, the president cannot assent a constitutional amendment bill which affects geographical boundaries of a province without approval by the provincial assembly of that province.

Article 239(4) of the Constitution reads, “A bill to amend the Constitution which would have the effect of altering the limits of a province shall not be presented to the president for assent unless it has been passed by the provincial assembly of that province by the votes of not less than two-thirds of its total membership.”

Political analysts see the move as a great challenge for Imran Khan as PTI-led coalition government in the KP is facing a severe political crisis and the party dissidents have announced to table a no-confidence motion against KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak.

If the bill does not get through the KP Assembly, then the fate of Fata merger will be in the hands of new representatives to be elected in the coming general elections as even after its passage from the National Assembly and the Senate, the president will have to wait for giving his assent till the installation of the new assembly.

Another meeting of parliamentary leaders Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi presided over another meeting of the parliamentary leaders of different parties on Wednesday in which the participants fine-tuned the draft bill.

The meeting was not attended by representatives of the JUI-F and PkMAP.

According to sources, the bill seeks amendment to Article 1 of the Constitution which defines the country’s territory and has a mention of Fata as a separate entity with other four provinces. The bill also seeks to amend Articles 51 and 106 which specify the number of seats allocated to each of the federating units in the National and provincial assemblies.

The sources said the bill also seeks to repeal Articles 246 and 247 which place the tribal areas under the command and control of the president.

According to the sources, the parties have agreed that formal merger of Fata with KP would take place in one year with the allocation of seats in the KP Assembly. As far as senators from Fata are concerned, they said, it had been decided that the incumbent eight senators would be allowed to complete their six-year terms. Half of the senators would retire in 2021 and the remaining four in 2024 after which there would be no separate representation of Fata in the Senate.

The National Assembly had already passed a bill on January 12 extending the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court and the Peshawar High Court to Fata, as a first major step towards mainstreaming the tribal region and its eventual merger with KP.

The bill was passed comfortably as the only opposition to it came from JUI-F lawmakers.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2018