The 26th amendment and misleading mutual felicitations … Imtiaz Gul

On Oct 21, Pakistan witnessed another low in its wobbly politics. The circumstances around the 26th constitutional amendment sounded like a regression accompanied by false claims of absolute numbers required for the legislation by PML-N and PPP leaders, and deceptive brinkmanship by Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

Chief Justice Qazi Faiz Isa and his colleagues on the bench had levelled the ground for floor-crossing through their ruling on the article 63A, yet Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his potential successor Bilawal Zardari still needed to get a few more members on board. To get those numbers, they literally allowed the alleged abduction or forced disappearance of a few members that belonged to Balochistan National Party (BNP) and the PTI, not to mention a couple of members of the JUI-F as well, as reported by Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

The details of the deal with the maverick Maulana – as of now – remain elusive, yet the JUI-F’s ascent to the 26th amendment served as the biggest facilitator for clipping the wings of the superior judiciary. No surprise the International Commission for Jurists (ICJ) denounced it as a “blow” to the independence of the judiciary.

Appointments, dismissals and suspensions within the third pillar of the state i.e. the judiciary are now literally at the mercy of the prime minister and the ruling coalition’s sweet will. No suo motu any more, nor any legal challenge to the PM’s advice to the president admissible in any court any longer.

The cacophony of celebrations and the mutual felicitations by Sharif, Bilawal, their yes-men and their accolades for the Maulana sounded ridiculously superficial to the context of allegations of coercion, abductions and bribes.

All those who celebrated the passage of the 26th amendment – politicians, journalists, anchors, etc – practically normalised brutality and abductions.

“This can’t be a new normal for democracy and democratic evolution in this country where you are normalising the assumption that abductions and vote-buying are part of any legislative exercise and that those who differ with the scheme may imperil lives of family members – illegal raids on homes, detentions, harassment of family women, abduction of sons and daughters,” wrote an upset Pakistani Political Science scholar based in Australia.

While accolades for the ruling coalition and its allies would have made sense in a somewhat functional democracy, congratulating them for a process that allegedly involved human rights violations and abductions makes little sense.

Courtesy