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).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOn October 26, Justice Mansoor will become the next chief justice \u2014 no doubt,\u201d the former foreign minister said while speaking to a private news channel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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 \u2014 which allegedly include legislation to extend the tenure of CJP Isa as well as the retirement age of the judges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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\u2019s bid to table the constitutional package had been “postponed indefinitely”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking to the private news channel, Bilawal regretted that neither the parliament was functioning properly, nor the judiciary. \u201cWe waited almost 50 years for justice in Shaheed [Zulfiqar Ali] Bhutto\u2019s murder case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cUnder the Charter of Democracy, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission still remains unformed,\u201d he said, adding that they had promised to bring reforms in the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and judiciary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bilawal also said that his party wanted Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to play a positive role as the Opposition, regretting that Imran Khan\u2019s recent statement on X (formerly Twitter) sabotaged the engagement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is difficult for [the government] to discuss constitutional amendments with PTI along with its input,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, the PPP Chairman \u2014 while speaking on the Geo News programme \u2018Capital Talk\u2019 \u2014admitted that the government lacks \u2018numbers\u2019 in the parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPPP will prepare its draft regarding the formation of the constitutional court and will share it with Maulana Fazl,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Furthermore, the former foreign minister said that JUI-F was also chalking out its own draft for the same. \u201cEfforts will be made to reach consensus on a joint draft.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He noted that Fazl was insisting on taking opposition parties, especially Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), on board regarding the package.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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). \u201cOn October 26, Justice Mansoor will become the next chief justice \u2014 no doubt,\u201d the former foreign […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":89806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n