JI may challenge 'shady' constitutional amendment

ISLAMABAD:

Jamaat-e-Islami chief Hafiz Naeemur Rehman has lashed out at the 26th Constitutional Amendment, calling the entire process "shady" and a "tragedy for the nation".

He announced that the JI was seeking legal advice to challenge the amendment in the Supreme Court and would also consider public protests. "We will make decisions after consultations," he said while speaking at a press conference in Islamabad.

The JI emir took aim at the descendants of Mufti Mehmood and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto – Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari – and accused them of "trampling on the spirit of the Constitution that was unanimously approved".

He further questioned whether the current parliament, which he alleged was born from a rigged election, even had the legitimacy to amend the Constitution.

"Was Form 47 the ticket to change the law?" he asked, highlighting that over 70,000 votes were "cast, not counted" in favour of PML-N President Nawaz Sharif in Lahore.

He also accused Nawaz's daughter and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz, "and his prime minister brother [Shehbaz Sharif] of winning through rigging".

"Look at Form 45. I say with full responsibility that the MQM, with 22 seats, did not win at a single one of Karachi's 5,500 polling stations," he claimed.

Praising the PTI for boycotting the parliamentary session, he said that PTI had been repeatedly warned not to become part of this "game". "Despite internal issues, PTI took a positive step by boycotting the session in the end," he added.

He said that Maulana Fazlur Rehman had initially rejected the constitutional amendment completely but later got involved in a clause-by-clause review before becoming part of the government.

He blamed the PDM for attacking democracy first by staging a "marketplace" at Sindh House in the name of "regime change", and now tampering with the Constitution.