PPP says wants to evolve consensus on proposed amendments

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party Wednesday said that it wanted to take all the stakeholders together for creating a consensus on the proposed constitutional amendments.

“The Charter of Democracy was an agreement between the major political parties and it is necessary to establish a constitutional federal court as people wait for years for their legal decisions while courts are busy hearing political cases,” said PPP-Parliamentarians Information Secretary Shazia Marri and Senator Palwasha Khan while addressing a press conference.

Marri said the court hears 10 to 15 percent of common people’s cases and 80 percent of political cases. She said that it took 45 years to get justice in Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto case, adding that the judicial system needs reforms.

Marri said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that constitutional courts can be established in the provinces as well. “We do not want the people to wait for justice as long as the court is spending the remaining 85 percent of time in constitutional cases. The proposed constitutional court is not to reduce the powers of chief justice but it is for power sharing,” she said.

Marri said that parliament has the right to legislate but it is prevented from legislating only for politics. “Talk in the interest of institutions, don’t talk about personalities,” she said.

The PPP leader, criticizing the PTI, said that there was a party which called itself Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, but it wants justice for one person.

She said the PPP judicial reforms and establishment of the constitutional courts was not person specific but for the people of the country, who need the judicial reforms for justice. “I am doubting the intentions of those who are disputing a respected judge and a one political party’s making the judge controversial,” she said. She advised the PTI to give suggestion on the constitutional court if they wanted, instead of opposing it for the sake of opposition. “Off-the-record, they themselves believe that the constitutional court is needed,” she said.