ANKARA, June 7: Turkey’s parliament speaker suggested curtailing the powers of the Constitutional Court on Saturday after it annulled a law which removed a ban on headscarves at universities.

Late on Thursday the court sparked protests from the ruling AK Party by overturning a reform which would have let students wear the Muslim headscarf on campus.

“The Constitutional Court made a decision about the contents of this law passed by 411 deputies of our parliament even though the constitution clearly states the court can only carry out procedural examinations,” speaker Koksal Toptan said.

He suggested Turkey should discuss drafting a new constitution and establishing a senate in addition to a parliament to trim the powers of the Constitutional Court.

“The burden of the Constitutional Court may ease in a two-chamber system,” Toptan told a news conference.

The government has not commented on the senate proposal.

Turkish TV quoted the staunchly secularist, main opposition party CHP Chairman Deniz Baykal as rejecting such a move. The CHP would not be able to block it on its own and it was not immediately clear how other parties would respond.

Toptan said he planned to call main political party leaders to hold talks on the court’s decision.

The court’s ruling was also criticised by US-based Human Rights Watch on Saturday as a blow to freedom of religion.

“This decision means that women who choose to wear a headscarf in Turkey will be forced to choose between their religion and their education,” Holly Cartner, Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement.

“This is a truly disappointing decision and does not bode well for the reform process,” Cartner said.

SEPARATION OF POWERS: The AK Party said earlier the ruling broke the constitution.

“The Constitutional Court’s decision is direct interference in parliament’s legislative power and this is an open violation of the principle of separation of powers,” AK Party deputy chairman Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat said late on Friday.

Toptan was previously an AK Party deputy, though in his current job he is officially neutral. It is a largely ceremonial role, but comes second to the president in protocol.

The headscarf reform has rekindled a decades-long dispute over the role of Islam in a country of 70 million that is officially secular but predominantly Muslim and has yet to reconcile the two sides.—Reuters