Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman and Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Sunday criticized the higher judiciary and called out what he said was its “double standards” when dealing with legal matters of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan.
Addressing a seminar in connection with the Golden Jubilee of the 1973 Constitution of Pakistan at the Sindh Assembly in Karachi, the foreign minister said the public was looking towards the parliament and judiciary but “they can’t see any hope”.
“I have to, unfortunately, say that it is very difficult for political parties to defend the double standards and actions with which the higher judiciary is proceeding.”
He added that it was not appropriate that the “prime minister from Larkana is hanged” and the PPP was still waiting for justice for Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s execution but the “court waits for one week for the Zaman Park prime minister (Imran Khan)”.
“A dual system [of justice] won’t work nor will we accept it,” Bilawal said. “This cannot happen that if Benazir [Bhutto]’s government has to be sent home… [based on an editorial published by a newspaper] but if [Imran] Khan sahib’s government has to be saved then they are willing to turn, fold and rewrite the constitution because the blue-eyed has to be saved.”
Bilawal said the judges “make a mockery of themselves” by repeatedly delaying Imran’s hearings and merely threatening to arrest him.
Taking another jibe at the judiciary for taking “an interest” in the amendments to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) law, the foreign minister said judges were examining it closely because the NAB law did not apply to them. He said that among the amendment to the law, the NAB would be expanding its scope to the judiciary itself – “be it a sitting [judge] or non-sitting (former judge)”.
“There is corruption everywhere. It is present in parliament and it might be happening in the judiciary too,” he said. “If there is a proper law and approach, a powerful chief justice can end corruption and if there is a proper way, it can be removed through a parliamentary process as well.”
Bilawal said the PPP had always had a stance that NAB was made for political engineering, giving space to non-democratic forces and hanging a sword over elected representatives, adding that “this is why this institution should be closed down”.
Addressing the “holy cows” of the country, the foreign minister said the PPP would oppose the legislation that makes it a crime to criticize the military and judiciary. “We are running the setup of the holy cows in which there is a different law for the common man and there is a different law for the holy cow,” Bilawal said. “I think the law should be the same for you and any judges.”
Towards the end of his talk, Bilawal called for the protection of the fundamental rights of people. “We have to fight the dual standards, and we have to protect democracy,” he added. “We made the constitution, and we will save it.” Bilawal’s diatribe against the judiciary comes shortly after the PPP, PML-N, and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) petitioned the Supreme Court on Saturday for the exclusion of two sitting judges from hearing the suo motu case about the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab elections. The Pakistan Bar Council had also called on one of the judges to “voluntarily recuse to remain as part of the bench”.
It may be mentioned here that on Thursday, PML-N Senior Vice President Maryam Nawaz had come down hard on a “cabal of five”, among which were former and serving members of the judiciary, whom she accused of “conspiring” against PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif.
The pictures included ex-Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen (r) Faiz Hameed, former chief justices Asif Khosa and Saqib Nisar, and two sitting Supreme Court judges, who are currently part of a top court bench hearing a suo motu case to determine who has the constitutional responsibility and authority to announce the date for elections in Punjab and KP.
Meanwhile, the PPP chairman said that Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the founder of the Constitution of 1973, for which they were proud. “This Constitution of 1973 gives every citizen the to protect and guarantee their rights.”
He further said if Pakistan is a federal country, this constitution gives us a federal system. Pakistan is an Islamic country, then our constitution is Islamic, and Pakistan is a country of democracy then our constitution is democratic.
He said that since the constitution of Pakistan was passed, constant attacks have been mounted on it because some forces don’t tolerate the rights of the people. “It’s defacing at the hands of dictators General Zia and the nation still feels General Musharraf,” he remarked. However, there was a period from 2008 to 2013, when it appeared as if the whole society had become mature. “I remember, the day when the 18th Amendment was approved, a leading English newspaper had made the headline that the politicians of Pakistan finally became mature, he added.
