ISLAMABAD: The government and the Pakistan Peoples Party on Wednesday failed at the final round of their talks to agree on the revival of military courts after which the former called a meeting of parliamentary pardes on Thursday to approve the 23rd constitution amendment bill.

Interestingly leaders of the PPP, after attending the meeting, gave different points of view before the media regarding their party`s stance.

PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan told reporters that his party would not meet the government separately on the issue of military courts. `Now whateverisdecided,itwillbedecided in the meeting of parliamentary parties on Thursday,` he said.

He said the PPP stuck to its ninepoint proposals and would give a dissenting note even if all parliamentary parties agreed to support the government draf t bill.

Naveed Qamar of the PPP said his party would announce its final decision on the revival of military courts in the parliamentary parties meet-ing. `The meeting between the government and the PPP remained inconclusive on Wednesday,` he added.

The meeting presided over by Speaker Ayaz Sadiq was attended by Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Law Minister Zahid Hamid and PPP leaders Aitzaz Ahsan, Farooq Naek and Naveed Qamar.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Naek said the deadlock still persisted between the government and the PPP over two main proposals of his party that military courts should be revived for a period of one year, instead of two years proposed by the government.

He, however, expressed the hope that the parliamentary parties would make a breakthrough and a consensus decision would come after Thursday`s meeting. `I hope that a unanimous decision will come on Thursday,` he added.

The government introduced revival of military courts bill in the National Assembly last Friday but due to serious reservations of the PPP and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam-Fazl, the NA speaker referred the bill to the parliamentary committee. Other parliamentary parties were said to haveagreed on the bill. If the bill is approved by the committee on Thursday, the government will require a two-thirds majority both in the National Assembly and Senate to pass it.

While the PML-N will not have any problem in getting the bill through the 342-member National Assembly, it will not be in a position to secure its passage from the Senate without the support of either the PPP or the MQM.

In the 104-member Senate, the government requires a minimum of 70 votesfor the passage of the consututional amendment.

Even if full attendance is ensured, which is highly unlikely, the party will only be able to get a maximum of 69 votes, one vote short. The PPP with 27 senators and the MQM with eight senators may well prove to be a decidingfactorin the upper house.

The military courts were established in January 2015 after a terrorist attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar in December 2014 to try civilians charged with terrorism. The courts have been non-functional since Jan 7 after the expiry of the two-year constitutional cover.