Lawyers urge govt to disseminate proposed constitutional amendment

ISLAMABAD: Adopting a unanimous resolution, the All Pakistan Lawyers Representatives on Thursday demanded the ruling coalition to circulate the largely disputed proposed constitutional amendment.

A conglomerate of lawyers' bodies, All Pakistan Lawyers Representatives, adopted the resolution in a huddle at the Supreme Court Bar Complex in Islamabad. A number of senior lawyers from countrywide attended the forum.

The legal practitioners said Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar answered their questions in detail on the matter during a meeting.

"The parliament has the power to legislate and amend the Constitution. However, legislation or constitutional amendments should not conflict with the basic structure of the Constitution," the resolution said, adding that the constitutional package would be unfruitful without taking the lawyers into confidence.

The proposed constitutional changes — which allegedly included the potential extension in the tenure of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa and judges’ retirement age — have become a challenge for the coalition government to pass in the parliament as it lacked a two-thirds majority.

Moreover, the lawyers demanded fixing the Supreme Court Bar Association’s constitutional petition on Article 63-A for hearing.

They also said the perpetrators should refrain from putting the democracy and Constitution into danger through their nefarious activities.

The counsels asked the government to finalise the 26th constitutional amendment only after consulting the lawyers unions.

Treasury and Opposition benches have engaged in a tug-of-war in both houses of the parliament over the incumbent government's prospective constitutional amendment bill.

The government needs to secure a two-thirds majority in parliament to successfully pass any constitutional amendment.

The ruling coalition has apparently failed to manage the required numbers ie a two-thirds majority in parliament despite strenuous efforts which arguably centred around Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s assent to the proposed amendments.

After failing to woo the JUI-F chief, the government decided to "indefinitely postpone" the tabling of the constitutional package.

On the other hand, the opposition parties — PTI and JUI-F — criticised the government for being secretive over the content of the constitutional amendments whose original draft should be presented in the parliament for a debate before its approval.