Gandapur warns of 'blocking' entire country to protest against constitutional amendment

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur on Tuesday announced that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) was planning to block the entire country against the newly enacted law — the Constitution (Twenty-Sixth Amendment) Act, 2024.

Addressing the media persons in Peshawar, Gandapur said the PTI did not accept the constitutional tweaks focused on judicial reforms. He, however, did not give a date for the countrywide protests.   

“The amendment is an onslaught on independent judiciary. We will raise our voice against this 'illegitimate' tweaks to the Constitution,” he said, vowing that his party would revoke the amendment.

Through this legislation, he alleged, the incumbent rulers would get judges of their choice appointed for favourable verdicts.

His remarks came after the ruling coalition succeeded in pushing the highly contentious judicial reforms through the parliament via a two-thirds majority with 225 and 65 votes in the lower and upper houses, respectively.

Under the judicial reforms — opposed by the PTI which boycotted the voting process — the chief justice of Pakistan will now be selected by a parliamentary committee and have a fixed term of three years. A new constitutional bench will also be formed under the constitutional package.

Following the late-night marathon session in the parliament which began on Sunday evening and ended in the early morning hours on Monday, PM Shehbaz sent an advice to President Asif Ali Zardari to give his assent and sign the legislation into law.

After the president's assent, the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2024 has now become a law followed by the formation of a Special Parliamentary Committee responsible for the appointment of the new CJP under clause 3 of Article 175A of the Constitution.

The KP chief minister said his party would continue the protest until they got rid of the incumbent government, which was taking decision in their own interests rather than for the masses.

“Our workers are united and I will lead the protests, which will be extended to the entire country. We will block whole Pakistan,” he said.

Giving the party workers instructions, he said they should remain peaceful and carry out the movement in a political way.

On voting by some of the PTI-backed parliamentarians in favour of the legislation, Gandapur said those who "backstabbed" the PTI founder would be thrown out of the party.

Names of those who sold their votes had surfaced and the party would issue a show-cause notice to them, he said.

“It has established now that my decision to not give ticket to Mubarak Zeb was right. Mubarak Zeb betrayed the party by using the PTI founder’s picture,” he stated.