ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that the 26th Constitutional Amendment is not being done in haste and it is long overdue.

In a message on X (formerly Twitter) on Monday, the PPP chairman wrote, “We never legislate or amend the constitution at a whim like dictators and judges have so easily done. We work towards our goals for generations. It took us 30 years to restore what we could of 1973 constitution in the 18th Amendment. It has taken us almost two decades to get to the point we can undo the

damage done by 19th Amendment and

PCO CJP Iftikhar Chaudry’s judicialization of politics.”

“Justice Patel was one of four honourable judges who acquitted Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and refused to be party to his judicial murder. He held that there wasn’t the evidence to convict Quaid-e-Awam, Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and he did not consider approver as a reliable witness. Justice Dorab Patel also said that the trial of Shaheed Bhutto in the High Court in his absence was flawed. This is something that took the Supreme Court of Pakistan 45 years to recognize,” Bilawal wrote.

“Justice Patel was former Chief Justice of Sindh High Court, and Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He was also the co-founder of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and amongst the founding members of the Asian Human Rights commission. Justice Patel refused to take Dictator Zia’s PCO oath in 1981 choosing instead to resign. Had he not he would have become the Chief Justice of Pakistan,” he said.

He said that Justice Patel proposed the idea of a constitutional court to his colleagues at Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Asma Jahangir and IA Rehman, who agreed with him.

“Our history is inconvenient for those who think Pakistani politics begins with the cricket World Cup and culminates in Imran/General Faiz Inqalab. Our commitment to our, constitutional evolution, manifesto and Charter of Democracy remains consistent despite the changing faces of prime ministers, justices and establishment,” Bilawal stated.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024