PPP won't succumb to any pressure on constitutional package, vows Bilawal

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Monday that his party was trying to evolve consensus on the proposed constitutional amendments and prepare a consentient draft besides clarifying that his party would not yield to any pressure on the judicial package.

"This not possible that we do not accomplish a necessary task by succumbing to someone's pressure," said Bilawal while addressing an event of the Peoples Lawyers Forum in Quetta on Monday.

He claimed that the PPP was told to withdraw the recently proposed constitutional amendments or in another case, it should take back the 18th Amendment.

The PPP chief claimed that his party had achieved successes via 18th constitutional amendment, including by renaming Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP) as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province among others.

He said that the existing mechanism of judicial appointments was not in favour for the nation but only for judges. He stressed the necessity of reforms citing the existing procedure of appointments in the judiciary.

He further emphasised forming a parliamentary committee comprising the treasury and the opposition lawmakers to decide on judges' appointment. Bilawal suggested that a judge would not be appointed if the recommended name fails to win a majority in the committee.

He went on to say that the country's judicial system could not serve justice to the victims of terrorism and also highlighted the huge pendency of cases in the different courts.

The PPP chairman advocated the formation of a constitutional court in the country with equal representation of all provinces. He added that the time has come to rectify the judicial shortcomings.

He was of the view that not only in Islamabad, constitutional courts should also be established in provinces which is a necessary step to dispatch timely justice on a provincial level.

He, however, clarified that consensus on the mechanism for provincial constitutional courts is yet to be developed.

Bilawal said that they "only criticised due to political differences" when responding to the opposition's criticism of the proposed constitutional amendments.

The PPP chief said Maulana Fazlur Rehman-led Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F)along with political parties part of the ruling alliance have had same stances on constitutional courts.

He, however, insisted on evolving a consensus with all parties on the constitutional package per the PPP manifesto and Benazir Bhutto's promise.

"We will try to prepare a consentient draft as per wishes of [late PPP chairman and ex-premier] Benazir Bhutto as she suggested judicial reforms in 2006," he vowed. "We do not have a two-thirds majority in parliament, however, we have to work hard to fulfil Benazir's promise."

The government pushed the proposed constitutional package amid speculation about a potential extension in the tenure of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, who is set to retire in October this year, following the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s (PTI) request last month for the early issuance of a notification regarding the appointment of the next top judge.

Despite claims of securing the "magic number" needed to push the bill through, the government failed to table the judiciary-centric amendments — possibly including the establishment of a separate constitutional court — in parliament and postponed its move indefinitely.

The ruling coalition left no stone unturned to woo Fazl, with leaderships of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) and the PPP holding a flurry of meetings with the cleric, but to no avail.

To pass the constitutional amendments, the government is short of 13 votes in the National Assembly (NA) and nine in the Senate.