ISLAMABAD - Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that getting the 26th Constitutional Amendment by the Parliament was not possible under any other chief justice, as he praised outgoing Chief Justice of Pakistan, Qazi Faez Isa.
The PML-N-led government, with the assistance of its allies including the PPP, passed the contentious legislation in both houses of the parliament, which changed the procedure for appointing Chief Justice of Pakistan, fixed the post’s tenure, and formed constitutional benches.
In his interview with an international media on Thursday, Bilawal defended the timing of the legislation, which the opposition says did not only come at a questionable time but was also person-specific.
When asked about the timing, he said: “In the judicial history of Pakistan, there’s one man [...] that has shown us that he’s willing to obey parliament even at the cost of his personal power.”
The PPP top leader, who also served as the foreign minister during the previous government under PM Shehbaz, said that the allies had a window while CJP Isa was in power and they availed it.
“We did have a window because we have seen how other judges have moulded the Constitution whether it’s [Article] 63-A or the reserved seats case, to serve their personal interests.
“On the other hand, we had a chief justice who could withstand pressure from other judges also that may have tried to instigate him that ‘this is not a question about you, but about the power [of the judiciary].”
Bilawal said that the allies had a window “of a man who would not undermine what we were doing”.
To a question whether he believes the government would not have been able to pass the amendments had Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, who is the senior-most judge, become the CJP, Bilawal said that the judgment of the reserved seats was orchestrated to undermine the strength of parliament and that the Article 63-A decision was not based on the Constitution.
“It is realistic for us to believe that if those decisions were to come into force, the difficulties for us passing any judicial reforms, no matter, who became the chief justice, would only be amplified.”