Talks with the government would only take place on one condition: ‘Return our mandate’
ISLAMABAD:
The opposition alliance warned the government on Wednesday that it would “make their lives miserable” and wrote to all foreign ambassadors urging them to suspend any deals with the incumbent setup.
Addressing the media along with opposition members, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, leader of the opposition alliance Tehreek Tahafuz Ayeen-e-Pakistan (TTAP) announced that the movement would begin on Friday.
“We will protest and we will not throw a single stone,” he said, stressing that their struggle would remain peaceful.
Achakzai said the alliance would reach out to envoys from all countries and write letters to them requesting that “they cancel all agreements made with this government”.
Referring to a report by the United Nations, he said that 45 percent of the people of Pakistan live below the poverty line.
“Would the sky have fallen if the session had been adjourned?”
He accused global powers of trying to “set Pakistanis against each other” and warned that “we must stop the road to war”.
Achakzai reiterated that “Pakistani Constitution will be supreme, Parliament will remain the source of power and each province will have first right over its own minerals.”
He said the alliance was ready for dialogue, saying: “We are ready for negotiations, but we want to make your life miserable. We are appealing to the judges in the judiciary – you can end all this with the stroke of a pen.”
He added that talks with the government would only take place on one condition: “Return our mandate”.
Meanwhile, PTI chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan accused the government of clipping the wings of the judiciary through the 27th constitutional amendment, claiming that “the powers of the Supreme Court and the Chief Justice have been curtailed and the office of the Chief Justice of Pakistan has been abolished.”
“We will restore the office of Chief Justice of Pakistan,” he pledged, adding that the opposition would also regain “the identity and authority of the judiciary”.
He said the new legislation represented a “massive erosion of judicial powers,” adding that while “judicial reforms are necessary, the treatment accorded judges is unacceptable”.
Barrister Gohar said that during the parliamentary debate he pointed out how “the office of Chief Justice had effectively been abolished.” The latest changes, he argued, “violate the spirit of the Constitution,” adding that “new clauses have been inserted in constitutional definitions to limit the role of the Chief Justice”.
He said that by speeding up the changes, the government has “sunk the ship of democracy and judicial independence”.
“They introduced another amendment that we are only seeing for the first time,” Gohar said.
“In Article 260, there are definitions for everything. There is a definition for the Chief Justice in Article 260(A), but they added a subsection AB.”
He read the bill’s amendment to clause 56, which says: “After the definition of Chief Justice, as amended aforesaid, the following new definition shall be inserted, namely: ‘Chief Justice of Pakistan’ means the senior among the Chief Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.”
Gohar said this means that under Article 176, CJP Yahya Afridi will remain in his office as long as he holds the post.
“He took his oath on October 26, 2024 and it is a post with a tenure of three years,” the PTI chairman explained, adding that the CJP’s tenure would end on October 26, 2027.
“Section AB of Article 260 states that the Chief Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court becomes the CJP after the vacancy of the post.”
“They are playing musical chairs with the Supreme Court: There will be a CJP for three years, then there will be another for another three years,” Gohar alleged.
“If you wanted to appoint a CJP, you could have just appointed someone from the Supreme Court. You could do it ceremonially so that the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court is also known as the Chief Justice of Pakistan.”
“By rushing through these amendments, you have sunk the ship of democracy and judicial independence and given nothing to the people,” he added.
“However, I hope we will be able to turn this around when we get a majority in Parliament and free judges. Decisions are made in Parliament, but not for personal gain.”
