ISLAMABAD: Pakis­tan Peoples Party (PPP) Chai­rman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari laun­ched a scathing attack on the judiciary on Friday, accusing it of blatant bias towards opposition Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), with the latter showing restr­aint in its response due to the presence of Imam of Masjid-i-Nabawi (PBUH) Dr Salah Bin Mohammad Al-Budair in the National Assembly.

The opposition benches erupted in outrage, with several members shouting slogans, when the PPP chairman, who had been given the floor to welcome the Saudi guests and pay tributes to Pakistani athlete Arshad Nadeem for winning gold medal for the country in the Olympics, suddenly started delivering a political speech, turning his guns towards the PTI and the judiciary.

Opposition Leader

Omar Ayub Khan took the floor immediately after Mr Bhutto-Zardari’s speech and accused the PPP chairman of turning a dignified occasion into a political spectacle.

Mr Khan said that as the opposition leader, he could respond to the points raised by the PPP leader and talk about the “unlawful arrest” of PTI’s founding chairman Imran Khan, but he would not do so since “we want to honour our guests”.

“Despite the fact that Bilawal Bhutto had served as the country’s foreign minister, he unnecessarily prolonged his speech, which perhaps had been given to him by someone from Parade Ground,” Mr Khan said in an apparent reference to the military establishment.

Later, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman sought an apology from the Saudi guests over the speech made by the PPP chairman which, he said, made the atmosphere tense.

Bilawal’s speech

After congratulating Arshad Nadeem for creating a new Olympic record and bringing home the gold medal for Pakistan, the PPP chairman started lashing out at the judiciary for allegedly favouring the PTI through its recent judgement on reserved seats.

He dragged the judiciary in his speech while mentioning the situation in Bangladesh, stating that protests in the country had erupted over a quota for the family members of the martyrs of their army, which had been removed by the Hasina Wajid administration in 2018, but it was restored by the court.

The PPP chairman then blamed Pakistan’s judiciary for the present political crisis in the country, accusing it of interfering in the parliament’s affairs.

“Currently, a storm in a teacup is being transformed into a full-blown constitutional crisis [in Pakistan],” Mr Bhutto-Zardari said while criticising the Supreme Court’s verdict of giving the reserved seats of women and minorities to the PTI.

“This is the crisis of the judiciary, by the judiciary and for the judiciary,” he remarked amid noisy protest by opposition lawmakers. The house witnessed a ruckus for a brief period when the PPP members and the PTI members excha­nged words with each other.

“This decision (by the Supreme Court) has provided an opportunity to a dead political party to get itself mobilised,” said the PPP chairman, who attended the National Assembly session after a long interval.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari accused the judiciary of giving a “political verdict despite no such provision in the Constitution and law” and providing relief to the PTI that it had not even sought.

He said it was the Supreme Court and the Election Commission of Pakistan which had initially deprived the PTI of its election symbol for not holding intra-party elections.

“The opposition leader should be asked whether it was us who snatched their symbol. It was the court that stated that their internal elections were rigged, which is why they could not get a symbol and would not be considered a political party,” he said.

“If a country does not adopt the Constitution, law and a democratic demeanour, and its institutions do not work within their boundaries, the purpose behind building this [capital] city and our presence here would remain futile,” he declared.

“Our judiciary has broken world records. Pakistan’s judiciary is so capable that it not only runs the court but also builds dams. The judiciary can even combat inflation and set the prices of tomatoes and samosas. No judiciary in the world can compete with our judiciary,” he said while mocking the judicial system.

“We are witnessing a plethora of crises and have not been able to effectively address issues such as inflation and worsening law and order. We are not even able to form the bare minimum consensus on protecting the country from terrorism.”

He added, “We would have to devise a way to compete with each other within political domains. We must resolve the issues faced by the people.”

Speaker Ayaz Sadiq read out the president’s prorogation order immediately after the brief speeches made by Mustafa Kamal of the MQM-P, Mehmood Achakzai of the PkMAP and Opposition Leader Omar Ayub without considering the day’s agenda.

Published in Dawn, August 10th, 2024