Talks with the government would only take place on one condition: ‘Return our mandate’
ISLAMABAD:
The opposition alliance on Wednesday warned the government that it would “make their life miserable” and write to all foreign ambassadors urging them to suspend any agreements with the incumbent setup.
Speaking to the media alongside 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 even a single stone,” he said, stressing that their struggle would remain peaceful.
Achakzai said the alliance would reach out to envoys of all countries and write letters to them, requesting that “they terminate all agreements made with this government”.
Citing a report by the United Nations, he said 45 per cent of people in Pakistan live below the poverty line.
“Would the sky have fallen if the session had been postponed?”
He accused global powers of attempting 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 fountain of power, and every province will have the first right over its own minerals.”
He said the alliance was ready for dialogue, saying, “We are ready for negotiations, but we will make your life miserable. We appeal to the judges of the judiciary – you can end all of this with one stroke of the 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 judiciary’s wings 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 the chief justice of Pakistan,” he vowed, adding that the opposition would also reclaim “the judiciary’s identity and authority”.
He said the new legislation represented a “massive erosion of judicial powers,” adding that while “judicial reforms are necessary, the treatment meted out to judges is unacceptable”.
Barrister Gohar said that during the parliamentary debate, he pointed out how “the office of the Chief Justice had effectively been abolished.” The recent amendments, he argued, “violate the spirit of the Constitution,” adding that “new clauses have been inserted into constitutional definitions to restrict the chief justice’s role”.
He said that in rushing the amendments, the government has “sunk the ship of democracy and judicial independence”.
“They introduced another amendment that we’re 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 subclause AB.”
He read the bill’s amendment to Clause 56, which states: “After the definition of the Chief Justice, as amended aforesaid, the following new definition shall be inserted, namely: ‘Chief Justice of Pakistan’ means the senior amongst the Chief Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court and the Chief Justice of Supreme Court.”
Gohar said that this means that, as per Article 176, CJP Yahya Afridi will remain in his office so long as he holds the post.
“He took his oath on October 26, 2024, and it is a position with a tenure of three years,” the PTI chairman explained, adding that the CJP’s tenure would expire on October 26, 2027.
“The subclause AB in Article 260 states that the chief justice of the Federal Constitutional Court will become the CJP upon the vacation of the position.”
“They are playing musical chairs with the Supreme Court: there will be one CJP for three years, then there will be another one for another three years,” Gohar claimed.
“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 shall also be known as the chief justice of Pakistan.”
“By rushing these amendments, you have sunk the ship of democracy and judicial independence and given nothing to the people,” he added.
“However, I am hopeful that we will be able to reverse this whenever we get a majority in parliament and free judges. Decisions are made in the House, but not for personal gain.”
