ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party announced on Saturday it has challenged a contentious constitutional amendment on judicial reforms in the Supreme Court, urging the top court to declare it null and void as the government allegedly harassed opposition lawmakers to have it passed in parliament.

The ruling coalition government passed the contentious 26th constitutional amendment bill from both houses of parliament in October 2024, amid stiff resistance from opposition parties and the legal fraternity. Both argued the government’s move was an attempt to curtail the independence of the judiciary, a charge it denies. 

The amendments empower a parliamentary committee to appoint the Supreme Court’s chief justice for a fixed term of three years. It also called for the creation of new group of senior judges to weigh exclusively on constitutional issues. 

The government secured 225 votes of the required 224 in the National Assembly, or the lower house of parliament, with the help of a handful of rebel lawmakers from the PTI. The party has claimed that the government harassed and intimidated opposition lawmakers and their families to secure the votes. The government denies the allegations vehemently. 

“Legal team representing Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf has challenged the 26th amendment in the Supreme Court of Pakistan, requesting to declare its status null & void along with constitutional benches formation & decisions by the judicial bench,” a statement from the party said. 

The PTI alleged that lawmakers were harassed and abducted to ensure the amendments were passed. 

“The 26th amendment was opposed by the party at many levels that publicly criticized the process of pushing through the 26th amendment, with individuals being coerced into voting and genuine consent was not involved,” the PTI added. 

As per a summary of the petition filed in the Supreme Court, the party has maintained that the 26th amendment introduces “unprecedented and substantial” changes to the fundamental structure and salient features of the constitution. 

The development takes place a day after Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the chairman of the government’s key coalition partner Pakistan Peoples Party, said only parliament has the power to roll back the 26th constitutional amendment. 

“As far as rolling back the 26th [constitutional] amendment is concerned, that power only rests with this institution,” Bhutto Zardari told reporters at the National Assembly, referring to the lower house of parliament. 

“Neither will we accept nor will the nation nor anyone else if the constitution is rolled back or undermined by another institution.”

TENSIONS WITH THE TOP COURT

The amendment fixing the top justice’s retirement age was passed days before Qazi Faez Isa, the then chief justice, was due to retire. 

Khan’s PTI frequently accused Isa of being aligned with the government, its chief rival, an allegation the government has always rejected. Khan’s party repeatedly said the amendments were aimed at granting an extension in tenure to Isa.

Under the previous law, Isa would have been automatically replaced by the most senior judge behind him, currently Justice Mansoor Ali Shah, who consistently issued verdicts deemed favorable to Khan and the PTI.

Sharif’s government has said the bill ensures parliament will not remain “a rubber stamp” one in the wake of its tensions with the judiciary, which were on the rise since the February national election of last year.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Information Minister Ataullah Tarar this week criticized former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party for ending negotiations “unilaterally” with the government, saying it should have waited for the other side’s response. 

PTI leader Omar Ayub Khan announced the party’s decision to end further talks with the government on Thursday, saying that it would only resume negotiations to break political tensions if authorities established judicial commissions to investigate violence at anti-government protests organized by the PTI. 

Negotiations between the two sides kicked off in December 2024 after Khan threatened a civil disobedience movement. Both sides held three rounds of talks, and the government was expected to submit a formal response to the PTI’s demands on Jan. 28. 

“Minister for Information and Broadcasting Attaullah Tarar says Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf unilaterally terminated the dialogue process without any reason,” state broadcaster Radio Pakistan reported on Friday. 

The minister said the PTI should have waited for the government’s response to their demands, lamenting that it took the decision to end talks in a “hurry with ill intention.” 

Khan’s ouster in a parliamentary no-trust vote in 2022 has plunged Pakistan into a political crisis, particularly since he was jailed in August 2023 on corruption and other charges. His PTI party has regularly held protests to demand his release, with many of the demonstrations turning violent. 

But despite the government-opposition stalemate, Junaid Akbar Khan, a lawmaker from the PTI, was elected on Friday unopposed as the head of the National Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), according to a statement issued by the National Assembly Secretariat. The post of the PAC chairman had been vacant since the general election in February last year.

The PTI’s demands to the government revolve around the release of all political prisoners including Khan, and the formation of two judicial commissions to probe into violent protest rallies, including one on May 9, 2023, when PTI supporters rampaged through military offices and installations, and a second one on Nov. 26, 2024 to demand Khan’s release, in which the government says four troops were killed.

So far, the government has remained tight-lipped on whether or not it would form the judicial commissions as per the PTI’s demands.