The Tehreek-e-Tahafuz Ayeen-e-Pakistan (TTAP), a multi-party opposition alliance, has announced a nationwide protest movement against the proposed 27th Constitutional Amendment, hours after the government tabled it in the upper house of Parliament.
“Democratic institutions have been paralysed within Pakistan the nation must step up against the [proposed] 27th Amendment,” Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) chief Allama Raja Nasir Abbas said in a statement.
Abbas stated that the government was giving “even more power” to the “powerful” through the proposed constitutional tweaks.
Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) Chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai said that the nationwide movement would begin from today (Sunday).
“From tomorrow night, our slogan will be ‘Long live democracy, down with dictatorship.’ Our third slogan will call for the release of [political] prisoners,” he said.
Through this movement, the alliance will show that the will of the people of Pakistan will be the final decision, he added.
Emphasising the Constitution’s importance for both the state and its citizens, Achakzai said the TTAP would ensure that it remains supreme.
The PkMAP chief said that the opposition alliance had no choice but to launch a protest movement following the government’s move, which, according to him, was “shaking the foundations of the Constitution”.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Saturday refused to take part in the process for the tabling and passage of the 27th Constitutional Amendment, calling it a “pre-decided” exercise.
The party’s opposition to the proposed amendment comes shortly after Federal Law Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar presented the 27th Constitutional Amendment Bill in the Senate, which was referred to the Standing Committee on Law and Justice.
Speaking to the media outside Parliament House, where he was flanked by opposition leaders, PTI’s Senator Ali Zafar said that government members handed them a draft comprising 50 amendments.
“These amendments are being made secretly,” he said, adding that opposition members were asked to present their stance in the standing committee.
“We have not even read a single word of it – how could we appear before the committee?” asked Senator Zafar.
Senator Zafar noted that the 18th Amendment was passed after a year of consultation, in contrast to what he described as a “staged drama” surrounding the 27th Amendment.
He also criticised the proposal for presidential exemptions, saying that the government was planning to shield the president from being held accountable for life.
The PTI leader stated that the proposed amendment would abolish Article 184, which the Supreme Court invokes to safeguard fundamental rights. “The spirit of the 1973 Constitution is being changed.”
“Through these amendments, the Supreme Court is being dismantled. It would be reduced to a mere appellate court,” he said.
Senator Zafar announced PTI’s opposition to the tweaks, saying that his party “would not become part of the conspiracy against the Constitution”.
Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) Head Senator Allama Raja Nasir Abbas described the amendments as “an attack on the integrity of Pakistan’s Constitution”. Recalling the consensus built on the 18th Constitutional Amendment, he said that parliamentarians were “coerced and threatened” during the passage of the 26th Amendment. “This parliament does not represent the people of Pakistan. The amendment will end the very status of parliament,” he said.
PTI Secretary General Salman Akram Raja said the proposed constitutional amendment is a “ploy to enslave us”.
“Subjugating the Supreme Court to a new court, whose judges will be the favorites of the current Form 47 government, is to turn the judicial system into an instrument of coercion,” said the PTI leader in a post on X.
Former Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser, said that PTI has a clear stance that the current parliament cannot do any legislation as it lacks the mandate of the masses.
“We will use all possible tactics and platforms, including protest, to stop the legislation. I believe that fresh elections should be held before any such legislation because the current government is a Form-47 government and it does not have the mandate of the people,” he explained.
Asad Qaiser said that a meeting of the party leadership will be called to devise further strategy to resist against the move.