Islamabad (National Times) After the government postponed tabling the “controversial” constitutional package in Parliament, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari announced on Tuesday that Justice Mansoor Ali Shah would be the next Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP).
“On October 26, Justice Mansoor will become the next chief justice — no doubt,” the former foreign minister said while speaking to a private news channel.
Despite claims of securing the “magic number” needed to push the bill through, the government has yet to table the amendments in Parliament due to the lack of support from JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Incumbent CJP Qazi Faez Isa is set to retire in October this year. As his retirement draws near, the government has ramped up its efforts to introduce constitutional amendments — which allegedly include legislation to extend the tenure of CJP Isa as well as the retirement age of the judges.
However, after failing to convince the JUI-F head Maulana Fazlur Rehman, senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Senator Irfan Siddiqui told Geo News earlier that the government’s bid to table the constitutional package had been “postponed indefinitely”.
Speaking to the private news channel, Bilawal regretted that neither the parliament was functioning properly, nor the judiciary. “We waited almost 50 years for justice in Shaheed [Zulfiqar Ali] Bhutto’s murder case.”
He pointed out that the Supreme Court’s workload consists of 15% of the political cases, which he said consumed 90% of its time, stressing the need for judicial reforms in the country.
“Under the Charter of Democracy, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission still remains unformed,” he said, adding that they had promised to bring reforms in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and judiciary.
Bilawal also said that his party wanted Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to play a positive role as the Opposition, regretting that Imran Khan’s recent statement on X (formerly Twitter) sabotaged the engagement.
“It is difficult for [the government] to discuss constitutional amendments with PTI along with its input,” he added.
Meanwhile, the PPP Chairman — while speaking on the Geo News programme ‘Capital Talk’ —admitted that the government lacks ‘numbers’ in the parliament.
“PPP will prepare its draft regarding the formation of the constitutional court and will share it with Maulana Fazl,” he said.
Furthermore, the former foreign minister said that JUI-F was also chalking out its own draft for the same. “Efforts will be made to reach consensus on a joint draft.”
He noted that Fazl was insisting on taking opposition parties, especially Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), on board regarding the package.
