27th Amendment ‘disastrous’ for country: JI chief

ISLAMABAD: Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) Hafiz Naeem-ur-Rehman has strongly reacted to the 27th Constitutional Amendment, calling it horrific and disastrous for the country.

He said the details emerging from the amendment — granting lifelong immunity to the President and abolishing the system of accountability -- were alarming, adding the opposition must completely reject it.

In a statement posted on social media platform X, the JI chief said: “The 27th Amendment is religiously, constitutionally, democratically, socially, and politically wrong and shameful. It is equivalent to a deadly attack on the system of justice.” Hafiz Naeem said the nation was stunned to see what kind of flowers of democracy the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) were blooming.

“Those who run their parties based on wills, inheritance, and feudal authority — and who buy and sell members of parliament — neither consider themselves accountable before the public nor wish to remain answerable to the courts,” he remarked. “Both our religion and Constitution require every citizen, including the President, to abide by the law,” he said, adding: “The Quran and Sunnah instruct rulers to establish the rule of law and to strictly adhere to it themselves.”

However, the rulers consider themselves above the law and seek to push the country into the swamp of lawlessness, the JI chief said urging the opposition to unite and foil this conspiracy by completely rejecting the amendment.