PTI boycotts 27th amend deliberations

Beleaguered opposition party rejects tweaks as 'pre-decided exercise'

ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday announced that it would not participate in the process of tabling or passing the 27th Constitutional Amendment, terming it a "pre-decided and non-transparent exercise".

Speaking to reporters outside Parliament House alongside opposition leaders, Senator Ali Zafar said the government had handed over a draft containing 50 proposed amendments to the Constitution.

"These amendments are being made secretly," he said, adding that the opposition had been told to present its stance before the standing committee.

"We have not even read a single word of it — how could we appear before the committee?" Senator Zafar questioned.

He said the 18th Amendment was passed after extensive consultations over a year, contrasting it with what he called a "staged drama" around the 27th.

Zafar warned that the proposed changes sought to grant presidential immunity for life, and would abolish Article 184, under which the Supreme Court exercises its original jurisdiction to enforce fundamental rights.

"The spirit of the 1973 Constitution is being changed," he remarked. "Through these amendments, the Supreme Court is being dismantled. It would be reduced to a mere appellate court."

He declared that PTI "would not become part of any conspiracy against the Constitution."

Echoing similar concerns, Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) head Senator Allama Raja Nasir Abbas described the proposals as "an attack on the integrity of Pakistan's Constitution".

He recalled that the 18th Amendment was passed through national consensus, while members were "coerced and threatened" during the passage of the 26th.

"This parliament does not represent the people of Pakistan," he said, warning that the new amendment "will end the very status of parliament."

PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja said in a post on X that the proposed amendment was a "ploy to enslave us".

"Subjugating the Supreme Court to a new court, whose judges will be the favourites of the current Form 47 government, is to turn the judicial system into an instrument of coercion," he wrote.