PTI thanks president, wants CJP to look into issue

ISLAMABAD: On the issue of President’s signature on draft amendments to the Official Secrets Act and Army Act, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Sunday decided to move the Supreme Court immediately in the light of Alvi’s message on his social media account.

“We will place the matter before the Supreme Court and request the chief justice to fix and account for the responsibility through investigation in every aspect of it,” the party said, in reaction to the development.

A PTI spokesman thanked the president for what he called taking a stand above fear and concern for the Constitution and law, fundamental rights of citizens and for the survival and security of democracy and parliament. He extended full support for the president’s position at the national and judicial level and noted his stance on the process of ratification of the most important legal drafts requires extraordinary and serious steps in every respect.

“The president, through his tweet, has pointed out the deeply embedded disease in the state and government structures. In the last 16 months, the practice of deviation from the Constitution, violation of the law, escape from democracy and subjugation of the state to personalities has been strengthened in Pakistan,” he contended.

The entire state machinery, he continued, including parliament and the Election Commission, was removed from the Constitution and gone at the behest of invisible forces.

“The media and courts have been caught in the clutches of unseen forces by completely cancelling implementation of the most important parts of the Constitution and putting the country in the grip of the law of the jungle,” he charged.

The spokesman pointed out that the presence of “illegal caretaker governments” in Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, and denial of voting rights to 170 million Pakistanis in the two provinces are also driven by this thinking.

He also said the swift arrest of PTI Chairman Imran Khan through a controversial court verdict and naked fascism against thousands of leaders and workers to crush the party was a part of the chain.

Amnesty given to criminals through NRO-2 and destruction of accountability system through amendment to NAB Act, he alleged, are also the marks of these hands.

“The President is a symbol of the Federation, part of the parliament and the supreme commander of the Armed Forces of Pakistan. It is shameful, unconstitutional and unacceptable in every respect to make the president’s decisions ineffective without his will or to stop their implementation through conspiracy and secret tactics,” he contended.

He reiterated PTI’s demand for setting up a judicial commission to conduct a high-level inquiry into the cipher sent by the Pakistani ambassador to the US at that time.