LAHORE, May 28: Governor Sardar Latif Khosa has called for setting up a federal court to take up only Constitution-related cases.

“Under the Charter of Democracy it had been agreed that the Supreme Court would provide relief to the masses by hearing other than constitutional-related matters while a federal constitutional court be set up only for Constitution-related issues.

We are ready to go for another amendment in this regard,” Khosa said at a press conference at the Governor’s House here on Monday.

He said the PPP earlier had made amendments and if the PML-N agreed it could do this amendment as well. “But Nawaz Shasrif often backs out of his commitment,” he commented pointing towards ‘non-seriousness’ of the PML-N president over the issue. Flanked by PPP’s Makhdoom Shahabuddin, the governor said thousands of cases had been pending in courts and unless the justice system was changed the people would not get relief.

“Some people have been in jail for 20 years but their cases are not being heard. The justice system has been totally collapsed which we need to change,” he said, adding that under the CoD it had been agreed that a judge who had taken oath under PCO would not be entitled to hold the office.

The governor said the speaker’s ruling could not be challenged in the court and expressed the hope that it would not adopt a collision course with the parliament. “After the speaker’s ruling in the prime minister’s case the controversy should end and the opposition parties should concentrate on strengthening democracy,” he said.

Mr Shahabuddin said the federal government had procured 1.2 million ton wheat from the farmers against the target of two million ton while the Punjab government only procured 1.4 million ton against four million ton target.

He said the Punjab government was not serious in providing relief to the farmers. He said the south was getting 30 per cent share while 70 per cent was for the central and northern parts of the province.