Bilawal blasts Imran for targeting CJP, COAS

ISLAMABAD: Parliamentarians from the PMLN-led government and its allies, including PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif and former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, on the floor of the National Assembly on Saturday slammed the PTI founder chairman for his highly objectionable statement on ‘X’ against the army chief and judiciary.

Bilawal Bhutto said that Imran Khan, with his provocative statement, has once again attacked democracy and adopted insulting behaviour against the sitting chief justice and levelled political allegations against the army chief to make his position controversial. “What is the biggest mistake than this that you make chief justice and army chief controversial,” he said.

The chair allowed to move a motion for suspension of Question-Hour, which was allowed by the House to entertain the points of orders. Deputy Speaker Ghulam Mustafa Shah asked Ali Muhammad Khan to move the motion under rule 288 of Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the National Assembly 2007.

Bilawal said that Prisoner Number 804, in his fresh statement, attacked every constitutional institution for the purpose of promoting his politics and get relief in cases against him. “I will advise the PTI leadership to investigate as to whether the statement was issued by PTI founder,” he said. If Imran Khan himself gave the statement, then he would have to face the consequences according to the Constitution. “It will be responsibility of PTI founder if he creates any problems for himself, his party and democracy,” he said.

He said that then some individuals, who were present in an institution and in the PTI, initiated a conspiracy and that conspiracy was an ongoing coup attempt. “First attack of the coup was to reject no-confidence motion according to Article 5 of the Constitution and hold general elections before the appointment of new army chief and the second attack was to make the same appointment controversial,” he said. According to reports, media anchorpersons and politicians were launched to carry out a conspiracy against the country’s army chief, he said.

Bilawal said that the army chief as intelligence chief unearthed the corruption of Imran Khan and presented some evidences before Imran Khan to take action. “But instead of taking any action, Imran Khan removed the intelligence chief,” he said. Imran Khan with the support of people sitting in the same intelligence institution started a conspiracy against the constitutional process.

He said that under the same conspiracy, an attempt was made to stop no-confidence and appointment of army chief, adding that it was also meant to destroy the general elections process.

He said that a big story on the claims of PTI about forms 45 and 47 would surface soon. “They will hide their faces from masses when evidences of this conspiracy would be made public and they will have to be answerable before the Constitution and law.”

PPP’s Raja Pervaiz Ashraf said that they were standing behind the army chief like a rock and would not allow anybody to humiliate heads of institutions like the chief of army staff and chief justice of Pakistan and make them controversial. He said all the political forces would have to get united against PTI’s negative politics.

The former prime minister said that the kind of tweet given by the PTI founder gave an impression that it was done by a person who does not want peace in the country, democracy and supremacy of parliament.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that PTI’s real face had been exposed and proposed that the Special Committee set up by the National Assembly Speaker for restoring the prestige of parliament should be abolished. He said PTI was playing a double game which was evident from PTI founder’s tweet.

He conceded that the political leadership committed many mistakes in the past but now should look towards this august house for the supremacy of Constitution and rule of law in the country.

Asif pointed out that no one forcibly took Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur to the meeting, rather he himself came to attend it. “The PTI founder himself want to keep Gandapur with him because he knows that he is in contact with those people with whom Gandapur met and remained there for seven to eight hours at his own will,” he said.

He said that Imran also wanted to use those contacts but he was also not ready to back out of his double standards.

The language used by the PTI leaders, especially KP chief minister in the rally, was like those who run separatist movements. The defence minister said that the KP chief minister and PTI only apologised to the media for using abusive language at the rally as they needed it, while Gandapur’s speech was against the integrity of the country. “The Special Committee is no more required as the two-day truce has dissolved in the air with the attitude of PTI founder and his statement,” he said.

Opposition Leader Omar Ayub Khan alleged that the government was trying to get the constitutional amendment passed in darkness of the night, saying the government still did not have complete numbers for its passage. He said that even today, the PTI founder chairman is standing by every word he had said and they recognise what Imran said. PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said common sense should prevail in the House, adding that parliament would suffer in the fight between the government and opposition.

Gohar also came hard on Bilawal for his remarks saying that such speech is like death for a politician. “I feel that he holds a bogus degree from Oxford University and lacks vision as a politician,” he said. He said that the Prisoner Number 804 was still enjoying the support of over 70 percent people. “You will forget about Bangladesh when he comes out of the prison,” he said.

The speech of PMLN MNA Hanif Abbasi in which called Faiz Hameed as the father of PTI created an uproar in the House. Abbasi said the PTI members were arrested from the toilets of the Parliament House and they should be ashamed of that. He said that many PTI leaders and parliamentarians did not want Imran out of prison. “They should be sent to Afghanistan so that they should not humiliate chief justice and army chief,” he said.

PPP’s Shazia Marri said the PTI founder lacks vision as neither he has respect for democracy nor for women. She said the PTI founder was under the influence of black magic and the same magic made the country hostage for four and a half years.