ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has announced staging a countrywide protest on Friday against the proposed 26th constitutional package a day after the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Jamiat Ulama-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) reached consensus on the joint draft of the contentious judicial package.
“PTI political committee has decided to resist the constitutional amendments,” read a declaration issued by the opposition party on Wednesday.
The PTI’s core body has directed all regional and local organisations to hold peaceful protests against the government’s attempts to introduce the constitutional amendment. The statement said the PTI would make all-out efforts to block the passage of proposed constitutional amendments in both houses of parliament.
The constitutional package, among other things, aims to set up a federal constitutional court and fix the tenure of the Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) for three years.
Last month, the coalition government made a futile attempt to pass a ‘closely-guarded’ constitutional package amid speculation about a potential extension in the tenure of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa. However, the government failed to even table the amendments in parliament after JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman refused to support the government’s judicial package, leaving the contentious amendments hanging in the balance.
Earlier today, PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja backed JUI-F’s draft for the much-touted constitutional package.–Agencies
