Passage of 26th constitutional amendment bill: Opposition MPs accuse govt of using coercive steps

ISLAMABAD: The opposition lawmakers in National Assembly especially Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) on Friday accused Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif-led ruling coalition of using coercive measures to get the controversial 26th constitutional amendment passed from parliament on the “dictation of anti-democratic forces.”

They warned the government to stop these kind of high-handed tactics to “please its masters” in a bid to settle its scores with jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and to pave the way for his trial from the draconian military courts.

Maulana Abdul Ghafoor – the secretary general of JUI-F – warned the government that “every nook and corner of the country will be flooded with people if it passed the controversial 26th constitutional amendment through intimidation, abduction and kidnapping.”

Speaking in National Assembly, Haideri – who is the second-in-command of JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman – said that the government and its “partners in crime” will pay a heavy price if they did not stop the heinous crime of abducting the opposition lawmakers, their children and women, to get the controversial bill passed.

“On one hand, the government is talking about dialogue and building consensus [on the draft of bill], while on the other, it’s abducting opposition lawmakers, women senators and their relatives from hospital beds […] is this democracy or fascism,” he regretted.

“A JUI-F lawmaker was kidnapped in broad daylight, a woman senator of BNP-Mengal [Nasima Ahsan] was harassed; her family was intimidated along with scores of opposition MPs to coerce them to vote for the controversial bill […] we strongly condemn this and warn you to stop this nonsense,” he warned.

In the same breath, he lambasted the Sindh provincial government for barring Dr Mahrang Baloch from travelling abroad and snatching her mobile phone and passport, saying “the Sindh government has no capacity to deal with the bandits of Katcha, but it left no stone unturned to stop an activist from going abroad.”

He warned the government to mend its ways before it is too late, saying the situation in Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa is already going from bad to worse, and such things will further deteriorate an already fragile law and order situation in the country.

He warned that if – God forbid – the said bill is passed, it will be remembered as the darkest day in history of the country, adding the abduction and harassment of lawmakers’ families must stop immediately as the Prime Minister had already been told to put an end to this “hooliganism” or else things will get worse.

Omar Ayub, the opposition leader in National Assembly, went to the seat of Haideri and thanked him for speaking his heart out on the kidnapping and abduction of opposition members and its lawmakers.

Ali Muhammad Khan of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said that the same foreign policeman of world which eliminated leaders like Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Saddam Hussain of Iraq, and Shah Faisal of Saudi Arabia, is bent upon eliminating Imran Khan for uniting the Muslim world.

“Those who killed these leaders are now trying to kill Imran Khan through the traitors within Pakistan by making such controversial amendments as he [Khan] wanted to bolster relations with Russian, which the US did not like,” he maintained.

Raja Pervez Ashraf of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) said that the proposed amendment is meant to ensure transparency of superior court judges’ appointment, adding the existing system of judges’ appointment was solely done by the chief judges of the four high courts and the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

“We’re not against the independence of judiciary rather we are trying make sure through the amendment that that the judges should not be the blue-eyed of the top judges,” he added.

However, Ali Muhammad of PTI contradicted Ashraf’s claim and said that increasing the treasury members’ number in the parliamentary committee for the appointment of superior court judges, shows the government is bent upon “snatching” the independence of judiciary.

“We will not compromise on independence of judiciary as a judge appointed by any prime minister or a government without the input of the opposition means the rulers and the powers that be are not happy with an independent judiciary,” he lamented.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024