Constitutional amendment not a concession to be wrested, says AJK SC on presidential reference
MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Supreme Court has observed that any amendment in the region’s constitution was “not a concession to be wrested” from the government, as the court issued its advice on a presidential reference, which emerged on Sunday.
The advisory opinion came in response to a reference filed by acting AJK President Chaudhry Latif Akbar under Article 46-A of the Interim Constitution Act, 1974 after the recently proscribed Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) demanded the abolition of 12 refugee seats in the legislative assembly ahead of the July 27 elections.
The 12 seats are reserved for refugees from Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, who settled in mainland Pakistan after 1947. JAAC alleged that these seats were often used by mainstream Pakistani political parties to influence the formation of governments in Muzaffarabad.
The presidential reference had sought answers to five key questions over the constitutional status of the refugee seats, the legislature’s competence to introduce a fundamental constitutional amendment at the present stage, the constitutional limits of the rights of assembly and association, and the state’s obligation to protect the electoral process and reject extra-constitutional demands.
In the advisory opinion, dated June 6 and available with Dawn, AJK SC Chief Justice Raja Saeed Akram Khan held that the Constitution of the AJK was the “supreme law” of the state and its provisions the “property” of the people of AJK.
He stressed that an amendment to the Constitution should be made as per the due process and “not a concession to be wrested from a government under duress”.
“It can only be accomplished through the process the Constitution itself prescribes, by an Assembly possessed of the full democratic mandate of the people, after deliberation, consultation, and consensus-building,” the advisory opinion read.
The court observed that the AJK government remained legally obligated to hold elections within the stipulated time and maintained that the Constitution was not a “document to be honoured when convenient and discarded when inconvenient”.
“The Constitution endures because its guardians, ie, the government, the legislature, the judiciary, and ultimately the people, stand firm in its defence.”
Chief Election Commissioner retired Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal, announcing the election schedule on June 5, had said that the elections on refugee seats had previously been conducted under judicial supervision, but after the judiciary withdrew from the process, the responsibility would now be carried out by officials of the Election Commission of Pakistan.
Responding to a question about the planned JAAC protests, he said a prolonged agitation could affect the electoral process.
The same day, the region’s government proscribed the JAAC, days before the group was scheduled to stage a protest. The JAAC’s latest protest call centred around the highly contentious demand to abolish the 12 refugee seats in the region’s Legislative Assembly.
AJK authorities have also advised intending visitors to postpone their trips until June 20, citing security concerns ahead of the planned protests.
