RAWALPINDI: Incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan demanded that the notification of the next chief justice of Pakistan (CJP) should be announced soon, adding that his party was backing senior puisne judge Justice Mansoor Ali Shah for the post.
“The appointment of the next chief justice should be announced soon. [We] completely back Justice Mansoor Ali Shah,” the former prime minister said while speaking to journalists informally in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail.
Khan, who was removed from power via a parliamentary vote in April 2022, said that the purpose of the “constitutional court is to end the power” of the Supreme Court’s chief justice, adding that the “government is bent on destroying the judiciary”.
“They want their own judges to cover the [2024] election fraud,” the PTI founder insisted, stressing that the government “does not want the PTI to rise at any cost”.
The ousted premier made these comments in light of the ongoing saga surrounding the constitutional package chalked out by the ruling coalition which allegedly provisions regarding extension in the retirement ages of the high court and supreme court judges.
The government pushed the proposed constitutional package amid speculation about a potential extension in the tenure of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) QaziFaez Isa, who is set to retire in October this year, following the PTI’s request last month for the early issuance of a notification regarding the appointment of the next top judge.
However, the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), despite having the support of its allies such as the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and others, had postponed introducing the constitutional amendments in the parliament despite claiming to have secured the “magic number” earlier.
The deferment came after JamiatUlema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) refused to lend its support to the ruling coalition, short of 13 votes in the National Assembly (NA) and nine in the Senate as the said legislation, aimed at amending the Constitution, requires a two-thirds majority in both houses.
In the National Assembly, the ruling coalition needs 224 votes to pass the constitutional amendments, whereas in the Senate the number stands at 64. Currently, as per reports, treasury benches have 211 members against the opposition’s 101 MNAs.
Although JUI-F chief MaulanaFazlurRehman has so far remained seemingly unwilling to back the amendments, which he, in fact, has termed a bid to protect the coalition government,
