Fazl ‘ready to back’ constitutional court

In an unexpected development, JUI-F leader Maulana Fazlur Rehman hinted potential support for the proposed establishment of a constitutional court.

He also didn’t object to the government’s suggestion of fixing the Chief Justice of Pakistan’s (CJP) tenure to three years and raising the retirement age for Supreme Court judges, but said these changes should not be aimed at specific individuals.

Regarding the formation of a constitutional court, Maulana Fazl said he would seek to persuade the main opposition party, PTI, to back the proposal.

The JUI-F chief shared these views during a conversation with some TV anchors at his residence on Wednesday.

A participant in the discussion disclosed that while Maulana Fazl is generally supportive of the constitutional court idea, he stressed that the matter should not be rushed.

The federal government has recently made an attempt to pass the controversial package in the National Assembly, but failed due to its inability to secure the required two-thirds majority.

The controversial constitutional package proposed a constitutional amendment to fix the CJP’s tenure to three years while, increasing the number of Supreme Court judges from 17 to 23.

However, it was not presented in parliament as the government couldn’t convince Maulana Fazl to secure JUI-F’s support, which was necessary to meet the majority threshold.

The JUI-F chief also supported the idea of increasing the retirement age of Supreme Court judges to 67, similar to Bangladesh’s practice.

One of the discussion participants additionally revealed that Maulana did not oppose the idea of military courts, saying that a sunset clause had already been introduced in the past.