What happened in parliament is not democracy, claims Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Friday what happened in parliament was undemocratic as reference against the superior court judges is target killing of judiciary.

The combined opposition on Friday demanded withdrawal of references from Supreme Judicial Council against the judges saying that it stood with the judiciary.

“The government wanted selected judiciary and the way they filed a references against the judges in the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) without informing the judges and Parliament shows their real intention,” said PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari while addressing a press conference along with former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Chief of BNP (Mengal) Sardar Akhtar Mengal and other leaders here on Friday at the Parliament House.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said the government attacked peaceful workers of the PPP in Islamabad as the police not only tortured the PPP workers but also attacked the Parliamentarians. “Even two of our women Parliamentarians were arrested,” he said.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said a lie had been spoken in the National Assembly session as they negated receiving his letter for the production order of Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar but they had receipts of the letter. “I am once again demanding for the production of MNAs Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar and Parliament should follow its rules,” he said.

The PPP chairman said the government wanted a selected opposition and selected judiciary and the way they filed references against respected judges without informing Parliament and even not to those judges against whom they were filing reference showed their real intentions. “They are remnants of Musharraf and following the tradition of Musharraf through which they wanted selected judiciary,” he said.

Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi condemned the references against two superior court judges and demanded that they be withdrawn. “The target killing of the superior judiciary is taking place and even the judge is asking what reference was filed against him,” he said. He said that the move shows dictatorship not democracy.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said the government wanted to control the judiciary so that it could not give independent decisions.

He said all the Bar Councils were united against the government’s act and the Senate also passed resolution against the government act of filing the references against the judges of the superior courts. “Though the resolution was also supposed to be passed from the National Assembly but the government ran away,” he said.

Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said his party had always respected the court. "The previous chief justice became part of a campaign against us but because of respect for the court, we didn't speak about references against anyone," Abbasi said.

Chief of BNP (Mengal) Sardar Akhtar Mengal said though they claim the democratic country yet in reality they are not following the democratic traditions. He questioned how abruptly the references against the judges came up.

Sardar Akhtar Mengal reiterated that Parliamentary commission should be formed to probe attack on Kharqamar check post.

Meanwhile, PPP Secretary Information Dr Nafisa Shah in a policy statement of the PPP on the references filed against certain Judges by the government announced that the party will stand up with the legal community of Pakistan for the independence of judiciary.

“While we have stood for across the board accountability, the recent resignation by Additional Attorney General as a result of an alleged reference against a senior judge leads us to believe that there is an intention to use accountability for a certain specific purpose against the individual judge,” she said.

Dr Nafisa Shah said this coupled with a letter by Supreme Court Judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa to the President of Pakistan further confirms these suspicions, in which case there seems to be mala fide attention behind such move. “From these two letters, it seems that there is something afoot to derail the independence of the judiciary,” she said,

She said PPP warns the government against any move that may lead to institutional clash or undermine the independence of judiciary. “If indeed references are filed with ulterior motives, the PPP will stand up with Pakistan’s legal community for the independence of the judiciary as we have done in past.