The extended tenure of the National Consensus Commission, formed by the interim government to formulate the July National Charter 2025 with a broader political consensus on key reforms and their implementation method, expired on Monday without the desired broader agreement among the political parties.
The seven-member commission, with chief adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus and academic Professor Ali Riaz as its chair and vice-chair respectively, began working formally on February 15 for six months.
As its responsibilities had remained incomplete, the government extended the NCC tenure by one month from August 15 to September 15.
However, the government is discussing a further extension of the commission鈥檚 tenure, said commission insiders on Monday evening.
Professor Ali Riaz told 抖阴精品 at 5:20pm on Monday, 鈥業 haven鈥檛 received any official order on the commission鈥檚 extension yet.鈥�
The commission has conducted two rounds of dialogue with political parties, besides talks with experts, between March 20 and July 31.
During the first phase of the dialogue between March 20 and May 19, the commission conducted 44 meeting sessions with 32 individual parties on a 166-point questionnaire on recommendations about key reforms.
Given the feedbacks from the parties, the commission hosted its second-round dialogue with 30 political parties between June 3 and July 31.
The second-round dialogue covered discussions on 20 reform issues requiring constitutional amendments where all parties agreed on only 11 issues.
On August 16, the commission shared a complete draft of the 鈥楯uly National Charter 2025鈥� which received critical reviews from many political parties.聽
The draft July Charter contained a prologue describing a聽 historical context to the ongoing reform initiatives, a list of 84 reform issues agreed by a 鈥榤ajority鈥� of the parties, and a covenant that bound the signatories by a pledge聽 to ensure that the charter should be prioritised over the constitution. The covenant also restricted challenging the charter in any court.
Many political parties strongly criticised the draft July Charter, especially the covenant part.
Moreover, some major political parties demanded a commitment giving a legal foundation to the charter and its implementation method.
Between August 10 and September 14, the commission sat with the political parties and with its six-member expert panel to iron out a suitable July Charter implementation method.聽 But it failed in its attempts due to differences among the parties.
Amid objections from political parties, the commission on September 10 revealed the final July Charter, rewriting the covenant part.
The revised version provisioned that the charter would be annexed to the constitution or be added in an appropriate manner and it would bind only the signatories that they would not challenge the document in any court.
On September 11, the commission revealed six alternative options recommended by parties for using as the charter executing method.
The alternative options included a referendum on the July Charter, or a special constitutional order, or an elected constituent assembly, or the next 13th parliament, or a constitution reform council or the Appellate Division鈥檚 observation.
Besides, the commission also referred to its expert-panel suggestions including an ordinance, or an executive order, or a referendum, or a special constitutional order for adopting the charter.
The parties, however, failed to reach consensus on a single execution method. Some parties still opposed the incorporation of the charter into the constitution, pointing out that it still contained reform issues with dissent views.
To finalise the charter鈥檚 execution method, the commission held another meeting with Professor Yunus in the chair on September 14.
Yunus reminded the commission and representatives of the 30 political parties that the charter must be 鈥榝lawless鈥� and endorsed by all parties.聽
However, the September 14 meeting concluded with no positive decision.
Amid persisting differences, the commission hoped that it would hold another meeting with the political parties on Wednesday although its tenure was not extended further beyond Monday evening.