ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Defense Khawaja Muhammad Asif said on Saturday that the government had enough support in the National Assembly and Senate to pass the 26th Constitutional Amendment, aimed at ensuring parliamentary supremacy through judicial reforms, but sought broader political consensus to solidify the legislation.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s administration has been attempting to introduce a set of constitutional changes since last month, which the country’s opposition and prominent lawyers argue is designed to grant more power to the executive in making judicial appointments.
The proposed amendments initially suggested establishing a federal constitutional court, raising the retirement age of superior judges by three years, and modifying the process for appointing the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
The PTI believed the amendments were intended to grant an extension to Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa, who is widely thought to be aligned with the government and opposed to its chief rival, ex-PM Imran Khan, though the ruling administration denied the allegation.
Different political parties prepared various drafts of the constitutional amendment during several rounds of negotiations before announcing their agreement on the proposed judicial reforms and submitting it to the parliamentary committee that announced unanimous approval a day earlier.
“We would like to develop a broad-based consensus within the assembly and the Senate,” Asif told the media in Islamabad. “Legislation like this doesn’t happen every day. Occasionally, you feel the need to amend the constitution, and for that, the more consensus that can be developed, the better. Otherwise, I would say that we already have the necessary numbers.”
Speaking about the rationale behind the amendment, he said it was to address the institutional imbalance in Pakistan.
“A major objective of this amendment is to establish the supremacy of Parliament, which is guaranteed by the Constitution,” he explained. “We want to eliminate the encroachment on our turf.”
The minister specifically mentioned Supreme Court verdicts in political matters over the last two to three years, saying they undermined parliamentary decision-making. He noted that the 26th Constitutional Amendment sought to address this issue and confine the judiciary to its own domain.
Asif said all political parties agreed with the objective in principle.
Meanwhile, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan told the media after meeting the party’s founding leader in a high-security prison that ex-PM Khan had allowed his party to continue negotiations over the amendment.
The former prime minister has been in jail for over a year on multiple charges, which he claims are politically motivated.
The PTI chairman said he briefed Khan on the ongoing talks regarding the constitutional amendment, expressing hope that the party would finalize its position after the next round of discussions with its jailed leader on Monday.
