Opposition leaders vow to protect 18th amendment

The statement said govt's effort to review the constitutional amendment will never succeed.

ISLAMABAD (Dunya News) – The opposition leaders have vowed to fully protect the 18th amendment, said a joint statement issued on Tuesday by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman.

The JUI-F chief held a telephonic conversation with more opposition leaders including National Party leader Mir Hasil Bizenjo, Jamiat Ahle Hadith president Senator Professor Sajid Mir and Jamiat Ulama-e-Pakistan (Noorani) leader Maulana Awais Noorani.

According to a joint statement issued by Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the opposition leaders have agreed to fully protect the 18th Amendment.

The statement further said that the government s effort to review the constitutional amendment will never succeed.

“Instead of reviewing the amendment, the government should ensure its implementation,” the statement said and added the rights of the provinces under the NFC Award will defended at all cost.

Earlier, the opposition leaders have questioned the government’s motives in seeking to review and possibly roll back the 18th Constitutional Amendment as Pakistan struggles to contain the coronavirus pandemic. Despite government claims, confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by a coronavirus infection, are rising after authorities relaxed a nationwide lockdown as the Islamic holy month of Ramadan began last week.

“Our nation is fighting against the coronavirus pandemic, and we need to unite against its economic fallout. [Under such circumstances,] no one can understand the logic behind creating a new conflict,” lawmaker Ahsan Iqbal, a senior leader of the opposition Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), the largest opposition group, said in a video message on April 27.

“The 18th Amendment was adopted with the consensus of all the political parties, which still persists,” Iqbal noted. “Such policies and efforts [to review this amendment] are undermining our national unity.”

Pakistan Peoples’ Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari had also warned Prime Minister Imran Khan’s administration against misinterpreting the amendment.

“A country’s leadership is supposed to make difficult decisions when faced with a national crisis,” he said. “But for the first time, the federal government and the prime minister are trying to detach themselves from the provinces.”

In a rare show of political unity, the PML-N had joined forces with the PPP, the ANP, and numerous smaller political parties to adopt the 18th Amendment in April 2010.

On Monday, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi argued Islamabad is seeking to review the amendment because while it enabled provincial administrations to garner more resources and powers from the federal government, they were not distributed at the grassroots level.

“We do not want to do away with the 18th Amendment. ...We want to see whether it was implemented the way it was supposed to,” he said.

Qureshi says the government will soon begin consulting with provincial governments and opposition political parties to review the changes.