PESHAWAR: Peshawar bar opposes plan to amend Constitution
Bureau Report
PESHAWAR, June 22: Opposing the government plan to amend the Constitution, the Peshawar District Bar Association stated on Saturday that the military government had no legal authority to bring amendments to the 1973 Constitution.
An emergency meeting of the association, presided over by its President Sher Afgan Khattak, bitterly criticized the government for its intended move to amend the Constitution.
Almost all the speakers were very vocal in their criticizm to the government, claiming that the military rulers wanted to introduce a controlled democracy” in the country in which the elected parliament would only act as a rubber stamp.
The meeting unanimously adopted a resolution through which it was resolved that the present government had no authority to amend the Constitution and even the process of finalizing different amendments was an unconstitutional process.
The meeting said that only the elected parliament was empowered to amend the Constitution and due to this reason the bar would fully oppose the move.
The speakers recalled that the former military dictator, Gen Ziaul Haq, had disfigured the Constitution through his infamous amendments and now it was the turn of Gen Musharraf to further mutilate the Constitution.
They maintained that the Constitution could only be amended through two-thirds majority of the parliament and no ruler had the authority to change it as per his whims.
The bar members believed that the present regime wanted to control the future government and parliament and that was why it was planning to amend the Constitution. They feared that if such amendments were introduced it would increase political instability as the intended amendments would be like a hanging sword on the head of the parliament.
They added that the present government should learn lesson from its predecessors and avoid mutilating the Constitution.
Those who spoke on the occasion included Bar general secretary Naeem Jan, Mohsin Afridi, Zeeshan Johar and others.
