(MENAFN- Live Mint) As Pakistan's parliament prepares to approve the proposed 27th Constitutional Amendment, the Opposition has strongly criticised the move, warning that it will undermine“the very foundations of the Constitution” and reduce the power of the Supreme Court.

They have also disclosed plans for nationwide protests starting Sunday.

The amendment seeks to revise Article 243 by eliminating the post of“Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee” (CJCSC) and replacing it with a new designation,“Chief of Defence Forces.”

Other proposals include establishing a Federal Constitutional Court and revising the process for appointing high court judges.

How Pakistan's 27th Constitutional Amendment weaken powers of Supreme Court?

The amendment also seeks to curtail the powers of the Supreme Court by transferring certain authorities to a proposed Constitutional Court, while granting the president lifelong immunity from criminal prosecution.

Law Minister Azam Nazir Tarar introduced the amendment in the Senate, the upper house, on Saturday, after which Chairman Yusuf Raza Gilani referred it to a house committee for deliberation before it proceeds to a vote.

Committee Chairman Farooq Naek told the media that the panel would work to finalise the proposal by building consensus among its members.

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The government is hopeful of getting a two-thirds majority of at least 64 senators when voting is called on Monday.

After the Senate, it would be presented before the National Assembly, where it must pass a two-thirds majority again. In the final stage, it must get the president's approval to become a law.

TTP announces nationwide protest against the amendment

The Tehreek-e-Tahafuz Ayeen-e-Pakistan (TTAP), a multi-party opposition alliance, announced a nationwide protest movement against the amendment.

“Democratic institutions have been paralysed within Pakistan... the nation must step up against the [proposed] 27th Amendment,” Majlis Wahdat-e-Muslimeen (MWM) chief Allama Raja Nasir Abbas said in a statement.

MWM is part of the TTAP along with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan. The alliance also includes the Pashtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M) and the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC).

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PkMAP Chief Mahmood Khan Achakzai said that the nationwide movement would begin on Sunday.

"Our slogan will be 'Long live democracy', 'down with dictatorship.' Our third slogan will call for the release of [political] prisoners," he said.

The PkMAP chief said that the opposition alliance had no choice but to launch a protest movement following the government's move, which, according to him, was "shaking the foundations of the Constitution".

Legal experts are divided over the merits of the amendment, with many believing that the tweaks would, in effect, dethrone the Supreme Court as the country's highest judicial forum, ceding that position to a proposed Federal Constitutional Court (FCC).

However, proponents of the amendment say the new constitutional court would modernise the judiciary, reduce backlogs and separate constitutional and appellate jurisdictions - a reform they argue will improve efficiency and clarity in the justice system, reported the Dawn newspaper.

“Left with a limited jurisdiction of deciding ordinary civil, criminal and statutory appeals, the Supreme Court has now become all the more a 'Supreme District Court',” a senior counsel told Dawn.

He warned that the government could now amend laws like the Elections Act 2017 and others to route appeals to the FCC instead of the Supreme Court.

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Amendment to Article 175, he said, was“virtually the end of the judiciary as we knew it”, arguing that the Supreme Court had been“amended out of the Constitution by making it irrelevant”.

According to former additional attorney general Tariq Mehmood Khokhar, the proposed amendments tighten executive control over the superior judiciary through expanded powers to transfer high court judges, and establish an FCC“empowered by disempowering the Supreme Court”.

It also formally vests the office of Chief of the Defence Forces in the Chief of the Army Staff and constitutionally guarantees the Field Marshal rank for life, he said.

Another lawyer, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said that although the senior-most of the two chiefs would chair the Judicial Commission of Pakis­tan,“for all other purposes, the FCC will be in the commanding position”.

He noted that under the amended Article 175A, the chief justice of the FCC is listed before the chief justice of the Supreme Court and will have a longer tenure, retiring at 68, compared to the current retirement age of 65 for Supreme Court judges.

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In contrast, senior counsel Hafiz Ahsaan Ahmad Khokhar welcomed the initiative, calling the proposed 27th Amendment“a major and long-awaited structural shift” in the justice system.

He said the creation of two separate apex courts - the existing Supreme Cou­rt dealing primarily with appellate functions, and a new FCC with exclusive jurisdiction over constitutional interpretation, inter-governmental disputes and matters arising under Article 199 - ref­lected“a forward-looking reform model”.

This division, he argued, would provide“greater clarity, efficiency and constitutional coherence”.

He said the reforms could help depoliticise the higher judiciary, eliminate internal divisions, reduce backlogs and prevent overlapping between constitutional and appellate benches, as reported by PTI.

Khokhar said the amendments to Article 243 were in line with“modern constitutional democracies”, with a unified advisory framework under a principal military adviser answerable to the prime minister, the defence minister and the National Security Committee.

Meanwhile, newly elected Supreme Court Bar Association President Haroonur Rasheed supported the idea of setting up an FCC.

(With inputs from PTI)

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