The Islamic-oriented governing party might submit the amendment to Parliament this week,  said Nihat Ergun, a prominent party member and lawmaker. Ergun's remarks came ten days after Turkey's top prosecutor, Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya, moved to ban the ruling Justice and Development party, saying it was trying to scrap the secularist principles protected by the Constitution.

Ergun said attempts to close political parties put parliament under pressure and delay legislative activities. "We already had a study going on about closure of political parties as part of our constitutional reform," Ergun said. The latest legal developments made change necessary.

The Constitutional Court began assessing Yalcinkaya's request and will decide whether to hear the case during this week, a court official has said.
Yalcinkaya also wants 71 people, including Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul, banned from politics for five years.
The case, if the court decides to hear it, could take several months. The court has shut  down four other pro-Islamic parties on similar grounds since the 1970s.

The prosecutor's complaint says Erdogan's party violated secular principles by pushing Parliament to rescind a decades-old ban on wearing Islamic head scarves at universities. The head scarf legislation which is also being reviewed by the Constitutional Court triggered a barrage of criticism that Erdogan was trying to raise Islam's profile.

Erdogan has insisted his party which won 46 percent in last year's general elections is loyal to Turkey's secular traditions, and his government says the head scarf measure is aimed at expanding democracy and freedoms as part of Turkey's bid for membership in the European Union.

If Erdogan's party were to be shut down, a new party would likely be formed in its place,  as occurred when parties were shut down previously. If Erdogan and others were banned from politics, that would pose a trickier challenge. But since Erdogan's party members have a majority in the 550-seat Parliament, they could still lead a new government.