The PTI has said it will oppose any amendment to the Constitution that would modify the tenure of judges, calling such changes “person-specific” to benefit the incumbent chief justice.
In a statement, a PTI spokesperson accused CJP Qazi Faez Isa of being the “main facilitator” in the scheme of “snatching” the party’s electoral symbol and “stealing its public mandate”.
Any such constitutional amendment would be “resisted tooth and nail”, the statement said, and called the changes “nothing but a bribe” for the incumbent CJP.
While there was no clarity yet on the issue, media reports have claimed that the government was mulling changes to the Constitution to fix the tenure of the chief justice.
Currently, judges of the Supreme Court, including the chief justice, retire after attaining the age of superannuation, i.e. 65 years, as stipulated in Article 179 of the Constitution.
While giving his opinion on the reports of constitutional amendment the other day, Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar said he “will not vehemently turn down the proposals related to the tenure of the chief justice”.
‘Regrettable behaviour’
The PTI spokesperson said the “planned” constitutional amendment was the current government’s “reward” to CJP Isa for his alleged role in the cases faced by PTI leaders and the party. “The behaviour of [Chief Justice] Isa during the entire period of his tenure as chief justice was very regrettable and reprehensible with respect to the supremacy of the Constitution and upholding the rule of law.”
The statement went on to say that the chief justice “reduced the status and esteem of his position by compromising on the rule of law and Constitution”.
The CJP “opened the door for extra-constitutional and extra-democratic forces to interfere in the independence of the judiciary”, the PTI spokesperson claimed.
The “public-rejected” government was known for “destroying state institutions” and the proposed constitutional amendment pertaining to appointment of judges was the “continuation of the reprehensible tradition”.
The PTI spokesperson added that every government decision in the past two years “harmed and undermined the constitutional supremacy, rule of law and institutions”.
The statement claimed that strengthening institutions and a strong state was the vision of PTI’s founding chairman, Imran Khan. However, the present rulers were “weakening and undermining state institutions” to advance their “illegal and unconstitutional” agenda.
The statement added that the Constitution did not allow for “person-specific amendments” as legislation was always carried out in collective interest.
The PTI spokesperson said his party would strongly oppose the amendment through every legal and democratic means and block the bill in parliament.
This was not the first time that reports about changes in the duration of superior courts judges started making rounds. There have been attempts in the past to amend the Constitution for this purpose.
On October 1, 2019, when PTI was in power, its two lawmakers Fakhar Imam and Amjad Khan Niazi moved a private bill in the National Assembly to raise the retirement age of SC judges to 68 years.
At that time, Asif Saeed Khosa was the chief justice.
However, the swirling speculation died down when Mr Khosa retired after attaining the age of superannuation in December and was succeeded by Gulzar Ahmed as the country’s top adjudicator.
Any change to the tenure of Supreme Court judges will require a constitutional amendment, for which the votes of two-thirds of the members are needed in both the Senate and the National Assembly.
It means that in the 336-member NA, the votes of 224 members would be needed to pass the amendment. The current coalition has two-thirds majority in the lower house with 119 seats of PML-N, 72 of PPP, 21 of MQM-P, 5 of PML-Q, four of IPP, and one each of PML-Zia, BAP and National Party, as per the information available on the National Assembly website.
The two-thirds strength in the 96-member Senate comes to 64. After the April 2 elections, the ruling coalition controls 59 seats in the house.
