The federal government has summoned separate sessions of the National Assembly and the Senate on October 17 — the very next day of Shangai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit as the ruling coalition stepped up its efforts to introduce much touted constitutional package in parliament.

The coalition government has left no tone unturned to evolve consensus on its controversial ‘constitutional package’ with all political parties regularly holding meetings of the special parliamentary committee — a body led by Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) MNA Syed Khursheed Shah — to debate the proposed 26th constitutional amendment.

The constitutional package, among other things, aims to set up a federal constitutional court and fix the tenure of the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) for three years.

Last month, the coalition government made a futile attempt to pass a ‘closely-guarded’ constitutional package amid speculation about a potential extension in the tenure of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa.

However, the government failed to even table the amendments in parliament after JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman refused to support the government’s judicial package, leaving the contentious amendments hanging in the balance.

To pass the constitutional amendments, the government needs two-thirds majority in parliament, with sources claiming that it was short of 13 votes in the National Assembly (NA) and nine in the Senate.

In a statement, the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs said the Senate session will commence at 3pm while the NA session will begin at 4pm.

Meanwhile, a meeting of special parliamentary committee — containing representatives from all political parties — has been scheduled for 4pm tomorrow evening.