MANSEHRA: Participants of the All Pakistan Lawyers Convention here on Monday demanded of the Supreme Court chief justice to take a suo motu notice of the government’s proposed constitutional package insisting it is meant to limit the apex court’s authority.

“As the prime minister, PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif tried to become the so-called Ameerul Momineen [leader of the faith] but the bench and bar with the support of civil society foiled that extra-judicial move. Today, we should do the same about the constitutional amendment proposed by the federal government for curtailing the Supreme Court’s powers,” former provincial governor Shah Farman told the convention on the district bar’s premises here.

Former PTI Senator Azam Khan Swati, MNA Shahzada Gustasab Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Bar Council member and MPA Munir Hussain Lughmani and Insaf Lawyers Forum president in Hazara Division Shoaib Shaheen also addressed the convention.

Mr Farman said the Supreme Court guaranteed the protection of people’s basic human and political rights enshrined in the Constitution and the laws.

Participants of lawyers moot insist govt wants to limit SC’s authority

He said the federal government wanted to snatch those rights from people and undermine the apex court through the proposed constitutional amendment, but lawyers and civil society won’t allow that to happen.

Mr Lughmani said the Supreme Court was the country’s constitutional court and the government wanted to deprive it of that role by creating a constitutional court. “We won’t allow the government to make the apex court subservient to it,” he said.

Mr Swati said the lawyers’ struggle for people’s rights promised by the Constitution would continue.

Mr Shaheen announced the holding of such conventions across the country with the objective of upholdingthe sanctity of the superior courts and protecting the people’s constitutional and political rights.

PM’SVISIT: Former federal minister Qasim Shah on Monday said that the prime minister’s forthcoming visit to Balakot would usher in a new era of development in the region.

“Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will come here after the US visit to inaugurate the Suki Kinari hydropower project that promises employment to thousands of locals and regional development,” he told reporters here.

Mr Shah said the hydropower project excited under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor initiative would produce electricity on a commercial basis.

He said the prime minister would also launch other development schemes in Mansehra.

The former minister said work on the Balakot hydropower project and three such projects would also be launched in Balakot tehsil.

He said after Kohistan, Mansehra was also going to contribute to power generation and thus, playing a significant role for the country’s development.

Mr Shah said the people of Balakot, who suffered a lot due to the 2005 devastating earthquake, would find employment and socioeconomic opportunities due to the Suki Kinari and other power projects.

Published in Dawn, September 24th, 2024