Situationer: ‘28th’ legislative package by any other name

Shortly thereafter, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar tried to reassure his government’s allies, saying that if such an amendment were to be brought forward, it would only go ahead following consultation with coalition partners. But behind the denials and protestations, insiders from both parties admit that the possibility of a major constitutional change being made cannot be ruled out in the days to come. So what is the hullabaloo about, and what significance does it hold in the current political context? In background discussions, some PPP leaders believe that while the offi­cial line may be different, the party “feels” that “something is cooking”. While publicly, the PML-N has been at pains to point out that there is no such thing as the “28th Constitutional Amendment” in the offing, the matter of nomenclature seems to be more semantic than substantial. To borrow from Shakespeare’s lexicon, what we call an amendment could be a legislative package “by any other name”. Whether it would “smell as sweet” really depends on which side of the political spectrum you find yourself. If the grapevine is to be believed, PPP insiders say, the feared legislative changes — even if they do not amount to a complete roll-back of the 18th Amendment —could still deal a serious blow to the financial autonomy and powers over certain key portfolios that were devolved to the provinces after 2010. In background interviews, the PPP leaders say that nothing has been formally shared with the party. “What we hear from friends in other parties and our sources is that there is no such plan to completely roll back