PML-N rejects reports that it will change 18th Amendment

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) rejected a report that the party will bring changes to the 18th Constitutional Amendment, if it came back to power.

PML-N’s manifesto committee chief, Senator Irfan Siddiqui, a close aide of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, and the party’s Information Secretary, Marriyum Aurangzeb, both have rejected the report.

Senator Siddiqui also said that “We have not received any such recommendations.” He further stated that party leadership didn’t ever discuss the matter in internal meetings.

“We reject the false report related to changes in the 18th Amendment,” said Marriyum Aurangzeb.

According to a report published in DAWN today, the PML-N’s manifesto committee received several proposals, including the swing in the 18th Amendment to change the distribution structure of budget among provinces.

“There’s a very strong feeling, rather conviction, among the party’s top leadership that the current arrangements of financial resources distribution among the provinces [under the 18th Amendment to the Constitution] has created unsustainable financial problems,” PML-N source had told the publication on the condition of anonymity.

“So far, it’s believed that the party would not go for an outright reversal of the 18th Amendment, but it would address its key features and reshape the distribution mechanism of financial resources among the provinces. You would hopefully see it as part of the PML-N manifesto,” the source had explained.

Two party leaders, who had spoken to the publication anonymously, had also confirmed the development.

Earlier in the tenure of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in April 2020 that the “18th Amendment should be revisited to run the country’s affairs effectively.”