Talks with the government would only take place under one condition: “Return our mandate”
ISLAMABAD:
The opposition alliance warned the government on Wednesday that it would “make their lives miserable” and would write to all foreign ambassadors urging them to suspend any agreement with the current organisation.
Speaking to the media along with opposition members, Mehmood Khan Achakzai, head 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 his fight will remain peaceful.
Achakzai said the alliance would contact envoys of all countries and write letters to them, requesting them to “rescind all agreements made with this government.”
Citing a United Nations report, he said 45 percent of people in Pakistan live below the poverty line.
“Would the sky have fallen if the session had been postponed?”
He accused world powers of trying to “pit Pakistanis against each other” and warned that “we must stop the path to war.”
Achakzai reiterated that “the Constitution of Pakistan will be supreme, Parliament will remain the source of power and each province will have the first right over its own minerals.”
He said the alliance was ready for dialogue: “We are ready for negotiations, but we will make their lives miserable. We appeal to the judges of the judiciary: they can end all this with a stroke of a pen.”
He added that talks with the government will only take place on one condition: “Give us back our mandate.”
Meanwhile, PTI Chairman Advocate Gohar Ali Khan accused the government of clipping the wings of the judiciary through the 27th Constitutional Amendment, stating 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 promised, adding that the opposition will also restore “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 of judges is unacceptable”.
Advocate Gohar stated that during the parliamentary debate he highlighted how “the office of Chief Justice had been effectively abolished”. The recent amendments, he argued, “violate the spirit of the Constitution”, adding that “new clauses have been inserted in the constitutional definitions to restrict the role of the Chief Justice”.
He said that by rushing the amendments, the government has “sunk the ship of democracy and judicial independence.”
“They introduced another amendment that we’re just seeing for the first time,” Gohar said.
“In article 260 there are definitions for everything. There is a definition for chief justice in article 260 (A), but they added a subclause AB.”
He read out the bill’s amendment to Clause 56, which states: “After the definition of Chief Justice, as amended above, the following new definition shall be inserted, namely: ‘Chief Justice of Pakistan’ means the most senior between the Chief Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court and the Chief Justice.”
Gohar said this means that under Article 176, CJP Yahya Afridi will remain in office as long as he holds office.
“He took oath on October 26, 2024 and it is a position with a three-year term,” the PTI president explained, adding that the CJP’s term would expire on October 26, 2027.
“Subsection AB of article 260 establishes that the president of the Federal Constitutional Court will become the CJP upon leaving office.”
“They are playing chairs with the Supreme Court: there will be one CJP for three years, then there will be another for another three years,” Gohar said.
“If you wanted to appoint a CJP, you could have simply appointed someone from the Supreme Court. You could do it ceremonially, so that the chief justice is also known as the chief justice of Pakistan.”
“By rushing these amendments, the ship of democracy and judicial independence has sunk and nothing has been given to the people,” he added.
“However, I am hopeful that we will be able to reverse this situation when we get a majority in parliament and free judges. Decisions are made in the House, but not for personal benefit.”
