JI to move SC against 26th Amendment

ISLAMABAD: Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) emir Hafiz Naeemur Rehman on Monday rejected the 26th Constitutional Amendment, saying that the whole process was doubtful.

“What was done in darkness of the night is not less than a tragedy for the country and its parliamentary history,” he said while addressing a press conference. Rehman said that after consulting legal experts, his party would move the Supreme Court against the amendment while there was also option of protest.

He was of the view that the government through the parliamentary committee and prime minister would now appoint the new CJP on the basis of personal liking or disliking. “The whole process will be ambiguous,” he said.

The JI top leader observed that the judges due to divisions in their ranks, themselves provided an opportunity to the government for a midnight assault on the 1973 Constitution. He said that public opinion on the issue could also have been built had the PTI leadership not became part of consultations on the amendment saying that they would consult the PTI for the future action plan.

He alleged that the government did not have any interest to address public issues as it just wanted to have its control on state institutions. He regretted that grandson of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and his son-in-law and son and grandson of Maulana Mufti Mahmood breached the spirit of the 1973 Constitution which was passed with consensus.

He raised a question whether a Parliament which is product form 47, has the right to make changes in the Constitution. He alleged that Nawaz Sharif himself won with fake votes while his daughter and the sitting prime minister also secured seats through rigging.

He further alleged that the MQMP which is being represented in the National Assembly with 22 seats, did not won from a single polling stations out of over 5,000 polling stations. He said that he time and again asked the PTI leadership that it should not become part of process for approval of amendment in the Constitution and to some extent they boycotted the process.

He, however, said that Maulana Fazlur Rehman should not have supported the constitutional amendment. Initially Maulana who is also Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) president rejected draft of the amendment in total and later supported the final draft.

He said that the PDM president is now giving a logic that the government numbers were complete and amendment could have been passed without his part. “If numbers were complete then why you become part of this activity,” he questioned.

Paying homage to Shaheed Yahya Sinwar, the Hamas head, the JI leader said that the struggle of Palestinians would get new strength with his Shahadat. “He had become a symbol of courage for his colleagues in Hamas and Muslims.”

He also announced that the JI would observed October 27 as black day to denounce occupation of Indian forces on a part of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947. He alleged that desires of Nawaz Sharif and his daughter for establishing friendly relations with PM Modi are highly condemnable.

He said that the government should also give clarification with regard to reports to bargaining on Kashmir during tenure General (retd) Qamar Javed Bajwa otherwise the impression of desire having ties with Indian government would get more strength.