JUIF chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman on Thursday stressed that the Supreme Court’s annulment of its 2022 opinion on the interpretation of Article 63A of the Constitution should not be used as a means for “buying or selling” of votes in Parliament.
Earlier, a five-member larger bench of the Supreme Court led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa unanimously accepted the review petition against its 2022 verdict on the defection clause, which had stated that votes cast contrary to party lines in four instances outlined in Article 63A should not be counted. The four instances where the interpretation applied were the elections of the prime minister and chief minister; vote of confidence or no-confidence; a constitutional amendment bill; and a finance bill.
Addressing a press conference hours after the verdict on the review petition was announced, Fazl said he and his party accepted the ruling but hoped it would not lead to any match-fixing. To a question on potential horse-trading ahead of the government’s tabling of a proposed constitutional package, the JUIF noted no member of his party had ever indulged in such actions. He also advised the government to not table the proposed bill until after the conclusion of the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, scheduled for Oct. 15-16 in Islamabad.
“Internal and political differences should be set aside for the time being,” he said, urging the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to postpone its anti-government protests until after all foreign visits to the country concluded. Nonetheless, he maintained, his party did not support the government’s proposed judicial package. “No legislation was made on any of our recommendations,” he said and reiterated questions over the government’s apparent urgency in tabling the legislation.
“Today, they [the government] are insisting on amending the Constitution within 24 hours,” he said, recalling that the 18th Amendment had come to pass after nine months of debate. He said the bill, as currently presented to the JUIF, was incapable of “being passed and supported.” He also regretted the lack of progress in tabling Islamic legislation, including the registration of madrassahs.
To a question, the JUIF chief reiterated that the JUIF and Pakistan Peoples Party would devise separate drafts of the proposed constitutional amendments and try to evolve a consensus.