After the government postponed tabling the “controversial” constitutional package in Parliament, Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said that Justice Mansoor Ali Shah would be the next Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP).
“On October 26, Justice Mansoor will become the next chief justice — no doubt,” the former foreign minister said while speaking to a private news channel.
Despite claims of securing the “magic number” needed to push the bill through, the government has yet to table the amendments in Parliament due to the lack of support from JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.
Incumbent CJP Qazi Faez Isa is set to retire in October this year. As his retirement draws near, the government has ramped up its efforts to introduce constitutional amendments — which allegedly include legislation to extend the tenure of CJP Isa as well as the retirement age of the judges.
However, after failing to convince the JUI-F head Maulana Fazlur Rehman, senior Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Senator Irfan Siddiqui told Geo News earlier that the government’s bid to table the constitutional package had been “postponed indefinitely”.
Speaking to the private news channel, Bilawal regretted that neither the parliament was functioning properly, nor the judiciary. “We waited almost 50 years for justice in Shaheed [Zulfiqar Ali] Bhutto’s murder case.”
