Won’t vote if govt continues coercive tactics: JUIF

ISLAMABAD: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUIF), while terming role of the government with regard to constitutional amendment highly shameful and regrettable, Friday said that the rulers cannot force the party’s parliamentarians to vote in favour of the amendment.

“If the government continues to use coercive tactics we will never support the constitutional amendment even if our bodies are cut to pieces,” Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri said, while taking part in a debate on the proposed amendments in the National Assembly.

He advised the government to give up undemocratic tactics and immediately release kidnapped parliamentarians. “Then the released members will use their vote at their own will,” he said.

Haideri said it was very shameful that the government was going to amend the Constitution in an ugly way. “On one hand you are holding negotiations and talk about reconciliation and on the other hand, the opposition members are being kidnapped,” he said, adding that as to what it was showing to the world.

He also warned the government that his party would protest if the government manages to get the constitutional amendment bill passed with ‘artificial’ majority. “We are still ready for talks but you want solutions through use of force which is not possible,” the JUIF MNA said.

He said that his party members and two parliamentarians of Balochistan National Party-Mengal have been kidnapped. He said that husband and son of BNPM parliamentarian Naseema Shah were also kidnapped while another member who was undergoing treatment at a hospital was also picked up.

He also alleged that the parliamentarians were offered upto Rs500 million to support the constitutional amendment bill. He questioned the government whether it wanted to get the amendment passed by Parliament in that way. “Is this democracy or fascism. This is height of brutality,” he said.

Haideri said that Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are burning while a few robbers of Katcha area had made the government helpless, and now the regime was creating problems.

He said that Maulana Fazl also apprised the prime minister that parliamentarians of opposition parties were being kidnapped and being threatened. “It will be the blackest chapter in the parliamentary history of the country,” he said.

He said that it was also a matter of shame that a Baloch woman activist who was to leave for the United States was stopped at a deserted place in Karachi, and her passport and mobile phone was snatched from her. “It is a matter of shame that the Sindh government is yet to come up with any clarification,” he said.

He said that the JUIF leadership always stood against dictatorship and raised voice for upkeeping democratic values.

PPP parliamentarian and former prime minister Raja Parvaiz Ashraf said that then prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s government was enjoying two-thirds of majority in the National Assembly but he wanted passage of the 1973 Constitution with consensus.

He recalled that the Charter of Democracy signed between the PMLN and PPP also provided for establishment of constitutional courts.

He said that all members of the special committee played a positive role and gave their input, adding that all the issues would be resolved in coming days.

He said that party Chairman Bilawal also played a dynamic role for creating consensus on the constitutional amendment and he never showed rigidity on the issue.

Raja Parvaiz Ashraf observed that the parliamentarians would have to look into the issue religiously and act while living above from party affiliations and politics.

The PTI parliamentarian Ali Muhammad Khan questioned as to who provided draft of the amendment bill to the law minister as he said that he had received the same.

He also questioned Bilawal as to how his party could compromise on amending basic articles of the Constitution and protection of human rights as ensured by it.

He said that the government was using force to get the bill passed which he said would not be possible.

He said that the government wanted give military courts a constitutional status only for trial of Imran in these courts.

He suggested that the draft be placed on floor of the House for debate and the same would be refined for protection of human rights, civilian supremacy and independent judiciary.

The PTI chief whip Aamir Dogar maintained that draft of the Constitutional amendment was not cleared with consensus at special committee’s meeting as the impression was being given.

He feared that still the draft which was placed at the special committee meeting was not the actual one.

He said if the government wanted to create consensus on the amendments to the Constitution then why it had been using coercive and threatening tactics for the last 20 days.

The National Assembly passed ‘the Deposit Protection Corporation (Amendment) Bill 2024’ and ‘The Establishment of Special Court (Overseas Pakistanis Property) Bill 2024’.

Besides, three bills were introduced, which include ‘the National Commission on the Status of Women (Amendment) Bill 2024’ ,’the Pakistan Infrastructure Development and Assets Management Authority Bill 2024’ and ‘the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (Implementation) Bill 2024’.