HYDERABAD: Pakistan Muslim League-N Sindh president Syed Shah Moha­mmad Shah has said that judiciary was being attacked by the federal government by way of filing a reference against Justice Qazi Faez Isa, who integrity, according to him, was beyond reproach.

He was speaking at a press conference at a local hotel on Sunday. Other party leaders were also present.

Mr Shah said [ousted prime minister] Nawaz Sha­r­if had led a movement for the restoration of judiciary and staged a long march for reinstatement of sacked Supreme Court judges.

He noted that President Dr Arif Alvi had recently sent the reference without issuing a notice to the judge concerned. “The judge [Justice Isa] has no stigma on his entire career; he is the son of Qazi Isa, who had weighed Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah in gold,” said the PML-N leader.

He was of the view that Justice Isa possessed plenty of wealth and did not need to indulge in improprieties. Another judge, Shaukat Aziz, was on record having stated that he used to be told by people to do this or don’t do this, he recalled, and claimed that the aim of this reference was to subjugate judiciary.

Referring to [Minister for Science and Technology] Fawad Chaudhry’s interview, he said that being a federal minister, he himself was no feeling that decisions were being thrust upon [govern­ment] from above. Mr Shah said the minister admitted that he remained unaware of such decisions and also remarked in the interview that it was not the job of army to run government. He said that some unelected people were taking decisions on behalf of the [PTI] govern­ment.

Mr Shah said that prediction by Nawaz Sharif, [PPP co-chairman] Asif Zardari and [JUI-F] head Maulana Fazlur Rehman proved correct that a government of selected people with technocrats would be installed. He observed that the country was facing political and moral bankruptcy.

Mr Shah said that Pakistan needed an impartial foreign policy and sound relations with neighbouring countries. He said that PML-N would follow Nawaz Sharif’s slogan of vote ko izat dau (give respect to vote) in the anti-government movement being launched after Eid-ul-Fitr. Maulana Fazalur Rehman, he said, would convene a multi-party conference soon after the Eid and the PML-N would participate in it.

Mr Shah said that undemocratic means were being pursued to run the country. He recalled that the opposition parties had accepted “rigged elections” but decided to sit in the elected houses in order to raise their voice.

The PML-N leader noted that a media trial was being conducted against his party for two-and-a-half years. He pointed out that Mr Sharif used to say that a future prime minister would not work and this stood vindicated now.

He also pointed out that an unusual appreciation in the US dollar rate was being recorded while fuel prices had been increased. He said petrol price was raised to Rs112 per litre which should have been Rs65 per litre. He noted that “the incompetent prime minister is saying that prices will go even higher” which meant that the coming budget would be anti-people.

Mr Shah said that it was interesting to see that some­time people were dubbed as [Indian intelligence agency] RAW agents and then the same people were declared highly civilised personalities and inducted in PM’s [Imran Khan’s] cabinet.

Movement to see fall of PTI govt: Qaim

KHAIRPUR: Former Sin­dh chief minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah has said that the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) is going to launch a movement under the leader­ship of its chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari and it will continued till the fall of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government, our Khai­r­pur correspondent adds.

He was speaking to the media after attending an Iftar dinner here late on Saturday evening.

He said that the selected prime minister [Imran Khan] had pushed the country into a crisis situation. “The inefficient PM’s anti-people and anti-democracy policies have devastated almost 90pc of the people,” he remarked, and predicted that the days of the tabdeeli sarkar were counted.

He deplored that the PPP leadership, including [co-cha­ir­man] Asif Ali Zardari, had been implicated in fake cases. However, ghe added, they would come clear in all such cases. Mr Shah expressed his confidence that PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari would soon become prime minister.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2019