ISLAMABAD - Maulana Fazlur Rehman had been facing two undesirable options; whether to go with the government on the constitutional amendments relatively of his choice or stay away from the whole process on Sunday and let the government amend the Constitution as per the first draft.
The first draft amendments envisaged formation of a constitutional court besides military court that the JUI-F and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) believed would have been a direct attack on the independence of judiciary. Maulana Fazlur Rehman’s residence remained the centre of attention throughout Saturday as Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi, heads of different political parties including Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and Balochistan National Party (Mengal) head Akhtar Mengal. The Sunday’s discussions between the JUI-F and the PTI mainly focused on whether the JUI-F should support the constitutional amendments and in return make the government adopt a bill that was “lesser damaging for the democracy”. PTI had already decided to oppose the constitutional package. Maulana Fazlur Rehman succeeded in convincing the PTI that his support to the amendments would stop the way of formation of constitutional and military court. He then apparently with the consent of the PTI opted for what was perceived to be less harmful, damaging, or undesirable compared to the first draft.
The main opposition party PTI would also be happy over the JUI-F announcing that they would support the proposed amendments to the Constitution. The PTI happily announced to part its way from the JUI-F and desired that the JUI-F support the amendments.
The actual dilemma the Imran-founded party would be facing in the coming days is whether to file references of disqualification against the turn-coats. Under normal circumstances, the PTI would have filed references against the deserters but at a time when they take the Election Commission of Pakistan as a hostile entity, it would have been unwise for them to think about such a move. Filing references means the party would lose these seats straightaway in the by-elections. Yet, it would be interesting to see if the party thinks on such lines in the coming days.