Pakistan - Abbasi asks Shah to arrange meeting with Bilawal, Zardari

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi asked Leader of Opposition Syed Khurshid Shah to arrange his meeting with the Pakistan People’s Party Chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari , and former president Asif Ali Zardari , so that he could seek their support in getting the constitutional amendment approved from the Senate on delimitation of constituencies on the basis of provisional census results.

The premier on Wednesday held meeting with Shah and sought his help in the Senate to get the constitutional amendment passed, which would pave the way for delimitation of constituencies across the country on the basis of provisional results of recently held census, but latter expressed his inability, and said that the party leadership should be approached in that regard.

Abbasi has sought Shah’s help, as delay in the passage of the constitutional amendment from the Upper House would result in the delay in next general elections.

Election Commission of Pakistan had given the deadline to the Parliament to pass the amendment by November 10th as further delay would make it difficult for the commission to complete the exercise of delimitation.

Later, the fresh deadline of December 2 was given by the Election Commission and it was cautioned that any further delay would make it almost impossible for the commission to complete the task of delimitation in short span of time. The spokesman of the Election Commission of Pakistan in a media chat said the process of delimitation was quite sensitive and a tedious job, and would require six months, which they had curtailed down to five-and-a-half months.

The fresh deadline of December 2 was given as later than that it would not be possible for the commission to manage the things.

Shah during his meeting with Prime Minister Abbasi said that he would convey his message to the party chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari .

Later, while talking to media, Syed Khurshid Shah said that it would be better for the prime minister to extend written request for meeting the PPP Chairman, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari , and Asif Ali Zardari as he could only convey his message to them, but could not confirm the meeting between them.

The relations between both ruling PML-N and the PPP turned tense, following the PPP defeat of the bill tabled in the National Assembly seeking placing of bar on a disqualified person to hold party portfolio and the hard-hitting speeches against each other in the follow up.

Earlier, the PPP and other political parties had extended complete support to the government in getting the amendment on delimitation through from the Lower House of the Parliament but now the PPP, which was having majority in the Upper House was creating hurdle in the passage of the same bill from the Senate by keeping its senators away from the house.

http://nation.com.pk/23-Nov-2017/abbasi-asks-shah-to-arrange-meeting-with-bilawal-zardari