Fazl remains in the spotlight

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari met Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Monday for talks on the government's proposed constitutional package.

After the meeting, senior PPP leader Syed Naveed Qamar claimed that both the PPP and JUI-F agreed to the establishment of the constitutional court, a part of the 'Charter of Democracy' and that both parties would work together to fine-tune the proposal.

Bilawal met Fazl after having a separate meeting with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, following the announcement that the government deferred its much-hyped constitutional amendments for the time being.

The flurry of meetings gave credence to the talk among political circles that the government was left red-faced on its constitutional package because the key to its success was held by Fazl, and that he was not 100% on board on this issue.

Bilawal was accompanied by senior party leaders, Syed Khurshid Ahmad Shah, Syed Naveed Qamar, Murtaza Wahab and Jameel Soomro. They were warmly welcomed by Fazl at his residence.

The meeting was also attended by JUI-F's Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haidari, Maulana Abdul Wasay, Maulana Misbahuddin, Senator Kamran Murtaza, Maulana Asad Mahmood and Engr Ziaur Rehman.

There was no statement of the meeting by JUI-F. However, PPP stalwarts Khurshid Shah and Naveed Qamar had brief chat with reporters after the meeting. They said that they held consultation with Fazl on the articles of the bills on which they agreed.

Qamar referred to an overnight meeting of the special committee, which was attended by Fazl as well as Bilawal. It was agreed that both sides would work together to sort out the contested clauses of the amendment bill.

"It was agreed that both parties would work together to sort out all the clauses that anyone has objections to and finally bring out a consensus draft according to the parliamentary procedure. Both agreed on this," Qamar said.

"Positive things have happened [in the meeting] and we hope that we will all sit down and come to a consensus. Both the PPP and the JUI-F want to form a constitutional court, now we will discuss the details together," Qamar said.

"We wanted time for the constitutional amendments and all parties, including the government and the opposition, should be included in it. Today's meeting was to take this matter forward," he added.

On the occasion, Shah said that their aim was to make parliament more powerful, stressing that there was no question of arguing with anyone. However, he added, when the PPP leadership and Fazl agreed, they would talk to other parties also.

"Our effort is to make laws according to the wishes of the people, the country, the nation, the Constitution and the law," Shah said. "Parliament has every right to legislate and nobody can stop us from legislating because it is our right," he added.