No trust in CJP, says PTI spokesperson

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Spokesman Raoof Hasan has said the party believes that it is not getting justice since Qazi Faez Isa took over charge as the chief justice of Pakistan.

During an interview to a private TV channel, he complained that justice was also not being dispensed earlier, but now their petitions were not being even taken up. Raoof Hasan said that CJP Qazi Faez Isa himself should not sit on benches hearing the PTI related cases and recuse himself from all such benches.

“It is not a good tradition for judges not to separate themselves from benches for some reason. The PTI core committee wants that Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa should not sit on benches in our cases,” he added. “Unfortunately the kind of decisions that are being delivered are seen to be biased; the element of favouritism in case verdicts strengthens our demand.”

The PTI spokesman recalled that in the Iddat case, the judge was first requested to recuse himself from the case, but he refused to do so. However, later on, he recused himself from the case on the day when the verdict in the Iddat case was to be announced.

“We know what the decision of Iddat case was to be announced on merit. In principle, the court should not be used for political matters, and the court should also not allow itself to be used,” he emphasized.

Raoof confirmed to have received a notice from the FIA, summoning him for the tweet on Dhaka fall. The FIA has summoned him at 11am on Wednesday to ask some questions, as the agency says that various concerns have arisen from the video.

Raoof Hasan explained that there is an opinion in the party that “we are not getting justice, and we are not likely to get it. There is an opinion in the party that we should use every forum to present our case, and the strongest platform we have right now is social media”.

He said the PTI founder has directed that Hamood-ur-Rehman (report) should be promoted/ highlighted and people should know “what mistakes we have made in the past”.

“The PTI founder did not see for himself the content posted on his X handle. After the tweet was posted, I did not meet the PTI founder,” he explained.

Raoof said the PTI core committee owned the video posted while the opinion of the party founder on the posted video would be known after the meeting. “The matter of the video is with our legal committee… after the opinion of the legal committee, it will be decided whether to delete the tweet or not,” he added.

Meanwhile, Punjab Governor Sardar Salim Haider said the PTI was pushing itself against the wall due to its own faults.

About a statement by the PTI leadership that their party was being pushed against the wall despite having the public mandate, the governor said nobody else but Tehreek-e-Insaf itself was pushing itself against the wall.

He stressed the need for dialogue amongst political forces to steer the country out of crisis.

Talking to the media in Lahore on Sunday, he said the PPP was an ally of the PMLN government and it had not made any decision on joining the cabinet yet.

Separately, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Governor Faisal Karim Kundi said on Sunday the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf founding chairman should either disown the controversial tweet on his account or accept the decision of his disqualification.

Talking to the media after visiting the residence of PPP Lahore leader Haji Azizur Rehman Chan, along with Punjab Governor Sardar Salim Haider, the KP governor said till a day ago, the controversial tweet was present on the official handle of Imran Khan.

To a question, he said love between the KP chief minister and him would increase further. He said he had invited Ali Amin Gandapur for lunch, but he seemed a bit reluctant.

He told a questioner to avoid assessing the situation of KP through social media and visit with him to see the actual status. He also added that it was high time that all political parties play their role in steering the country out of crises. He said parliament was the best forum for resolving the national issues.

Reacting to Faisal Karim Kundi’s statement, Special Assistant to KP Chief Minister on Information Barrister Muhammad Ali Saif alleged on Sunday that the provincial matters were not a priority for the governor. “The governor is busy visiting Punjab and Sindh. This shows that KP is not on his list of priorities,” he added.

Barrister Saif was critical of Kundi who had said the PTI founder was looking for an NRO [deal], and he wanted to seek some concessions. “There is no such word as NRO in the dictionary of Imran Khan. It does not suit Governor Kundi to utter the word NRO,” he said, adding that Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party leadership had benefitted from the NRO after allegedly looting the national wealth.

The special assistant advised Kundi to support the chief minister in the progress and development of the province instead of making controversial statements.

Meanwhile, Chairman Prime Minister’s Youth Programme Rana Mashhood Ahmad Khan said on Sunday had the May 9 culprits been punished, conspiracies against the country would have stopped now.

Talking to the media in Lahore after launching the Arfa Karim Fellowship Programme, he said the facilitators of May 9 tragedy caused great losses to the country.

He alleged that the PTI founder, in fact, attacked the foundations of a nuclear power i.e. Pakistan. He said if the PTI would not learn a lesson from its past mistakes, it would become a tale of the past. Rana Mashhood said all possible opportunities would be provided to the youth in the IT sector.