PM Imran Khan, along with his party members, have blatantly challenged the Constitution of Pakistan: Shehbaz
ISLAMABAD, April 04 (SABAH): Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif on Monday lashed out at Prime Minister Imran Khan for imposing ‘civilian martial law’ in the country, terming his move “unconstitutional”.
Addressing a press conference, flanked by PPP Chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari and JUI-F leader Maulana Asad Mehmood, MQM-Pakistan Convener Dr. Khalid Maqbool Siddiqui, BNP-M Chief Sardar Muhammad Akhtar Jan Mengal and others, Shehbaz Sharif said that PM Imran Khan, along with his party members, have blatantly challenged the Constitution of Pakistan.
“April 3 will be remembered as a black day in the history of Pakistan,” he said, adding that PM Imran Khan imposed civilian martial law, while General Pervez Musharraf also took a similar unconstitutional decision on November 3, 2007.
He termed the four-year tenure of the former PTI-led government a period of “an individual government, totalitarian and fascist.”
Recalling Sunday’s ruling of the NA deputy speaker regarding the no-confidence motion, he asked, “if Qasim Suri termed the motion as ‘unconstitutional’, why wasn’t it raised earlier?”
“PTI used Article 5 to prevent themselves from the embarrassment that they would have faced after their defeat in case of voting on the no-confidence motion,” Shahbaz Sharif said.
Regarding the “foreign threat letter” controversy, the leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly said that Pakistan’s Ambassador Dr. Asad Majeed Khan hosted a farewell dinner on March 16 and invited all US officials, even those who were accused by PM Imran Khan.”
Moreover, he added that, in his tweet, Asad Majeed thanked Donald Lu over good relations and cooperation. “If the letter was dated March 7 and highlighted the involvement of Donald Lu, why was the ambassador acknowledging the US official during the dinner on March 16,” he highlighted, questioning why Lu was invited for the dinner if had threatened Pakistan.
The PML-N leader said that if they had received the “foreign letter” on March 7, then “why did they not highlight this issue earlier.” “According to the speech given by the NA deputy speaker, all Opposition leaders became traitors,” he said, adding that Sunday’s NA proceedings made a joke of the constitution of Pakistan, laws and Parliament.
Regarding former information minister Fawad Chaudhry’s claims about challenging the speaker’s ruling, Shahbaz said: “It is right that no one can challenge the proceedings of the House but the Constitution was blatantly violated, does it have any protection?”
He said that the matter is in the Supreme Court and hence, “I will not talk much about it.”
Shehbaz Sharif said that the opposition would protest on the streets of Pakistan against the ruling party’s violation of the Constitution, claiming that Prime Minister Imran Khan had enforced “civilian martial law”.
Shehbaz Sharif claimed that proroguing the assembly was not a trivial matter but unconstitutional under Article 2 in light of the dismissal of the opposition’s no-confidence motion by National Assembly Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri and the dissolution of the National Assembly on Sunday. “The president had no right to dissolve parliament, it is in violation of the Constitution,” he said.
Shehbaz also accused the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of being traitors adding that PM Imran had conspired against the Constitution for personal gain.
The opposition leader protested that the premier could not face defeat and therefore resorted to ‘distorting democracy’ and taking extra-constitutional actions, against the advice of the Supreme Court. “Extra-constitutional measures were taken by the prime minister, the president and the speaker,” he added.
The PML-N leader, questioning the ruling party’s allegations that the no-confidence motion was backed by foreign interest, asked why the speaker of the house did not raise any objections on March 24 when the motion was added to the agenda.
Shehbaz further inquired into the letter provided to the premier stating that if threat was made to Ambassador Asad Khan on March 7, why was no objection made earlier.
PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said: “PM Khan sabotaged the constitution to protect his ego”. He added that PM Khan has no idea what happened. He further added that the responsibility of protecting the constitution lies on the people of Pakistan and not just the parties.
Bilawal shared that PPP workers and supporters are happy that the rule of the “selected” government has finally ended; however, he said that political parties, like PPP, PML-N, etc, will never be happy if extra-constitutional steps are taken because “we abide by the laws of the constitution.”
“PM Imran Khan, President Arif Alvi, NA speaker and deputy speaker have all broken the laws in order to protect the ego of the premier,” he said, urging the people to decide what is more important the “constitution or PM Imran Khan’s ego.”
Speaking about his grandfather, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, he said that today [April 4] is the day when Bhutto was assassinated and PPP has not been able to get justice on this issue.
He highlighted that the Supreme Court did not take notice of the martial laws imposed by General Zia-ul-Haq and General Pervez Musharraf but “we do hope that the SC takes notice of the unconstitutional act of PM Imran Khan.”
“We request the judiciary to form a full-court bench for this critical situation,” he requested, adding that the judiciary’s decision will determine the fate of the country.
Moreover, the PPP chairman added that if they want to hang them to death they can but before that, they should allow voting on a no-confidence motion. “If we are unable to implement the laws according to the Constitution in the National Assembly then we won’t be able to do it in the country,” he maintained.
Bilawal Bhutto urged the Supreme Court to “stop Imran Khan’s coup” and form a “full court bench to address the political crisis” in Pakistan. He asserted that what happened in the National Assembly on Sunday was a blatant violation of the Constitution. “There is one legal way of removing the prime minister — the no confidence motion. Imran Khan, just for the sake of his ego, sabotaged the no-trust process by violating the Constitution.”
Bilawal Bhutto called the dismissal of the no-confidence move “suicide for Imran Khan” and his party. Several PPP supporters, he said, were rejoicing at “successfully ousting the government”.
“But we will never be happy because we are democratic and constitutional parties,” he said, pointing out that today, April 4, marks the date former PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was not dispensed justice by the Supreme Court.
“The judiciary failed to provide us justice. Our presidential reference is still pending. The court couldn’t stop Zia’s coup, it couldn’t stop Musharraf’s coup … But we are requesting you: stop Imran Khan’s coup.
“Your decision will write the future of the country. It will decide whether our constitution is just a piece of paper or a document that protects the integrity of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan,” Bilawal said.
“Yesterday [April 3] was the darkest day in the history of Pakistan,” JUI-F leader Maulana Asad Mahmood said, adding that PM Imran Khan is trying to pressurise the institutions. Asad Mahmood said that they [the joint Opposition] will not accept international pressure being imposed under the guise of a “threat letter”. He suggested that the higher courts of Pakistan hold him PM Khan accountable for his statements regarding the credibility of judges.