RAWALPINDI: Jailed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan has said his party fully supports Supreme Court Justice Mansoor Ali Shah to become the country’s next chief justice. “The appointment of the next chief justice should be announced soon. [We] fully support Justice Mansoor Ali Shah,” the former prime minister said while speaking informally to reporters at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail on Wednesday. Khan, who was dismissed in a parliamentary vote in April 2022, said the purpose of the “constitutional court is to end the power” of the Supreme Court chief, adding that “the government is determined to destroy the judiciary”. “They want their own judges to cover up election fraud in 2024,” the PTI founder insisted, stressing that the government “does not want PTI to grow at any cost”. The ousted prime minister was speaking in light of the ongoing saga surrounding a constitutional package flagged by the ruling coalition, which is said to extend the retirement age of Supreme Court and High Court judges. The government pushed through the proposed constitutional package amid speculation about a possible extension of the tenure of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, who is due to retire in October this year, after the PTI last month sought early notification of the appointment of the next chief justice. The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), despite having the support of its allies such as the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and others, delayed the introduction of the constitutional amendments in Parliament despite claiming to have secured the “magic”. number” earlier. The postponement came after the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) refused to extend its support to the ruling coalition as it failed to get 13 votes in the National Assembly (NA) and nine in the Senate as the said law. , which aims to amend the constitution, requires a two-thirds majority in both chambers. In the National Assembly, the ruling coalition needs 224 votes to approve constitutional changes, while the Senate has 64. It currently has 211 members against 101 opposition MNAs, according to Finance Ministry reports. Although JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has so far seemingly remained willing to support the amendments, which he actually called an effort to protect the coalition government, Political and public affairs adviser and PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah indicated the development of “minimum consensus” among political parties on the controversial constitutional amendments targeting the judiciary, which also included a proposal to establish a constitutional court – which PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto said would be. introduced “come what may”. The prime minister’s adviser also said that the consultation process with other political parties on the judicial package had not stopped as Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari-led PPP and Maulana Fazlur Rehman-led JUI-F were working on their proposed amendments. He added that the proposals could be discussed in the upcoming consultations after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s return from the United States and opined that the government would present the constitutional package after reaching a “minimum consensus”.
