LAHORE: Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said imposition of any clause of the Charter of Democracy by any institution in the present scenario will be wrong, while the party could consider “broader electoral reforms” through the parliament after the Senate elections.

He also said if the establishment seemed neutral (in Senate poll), it should be welcomed.

“We desire implementation of the Charter of Democracy. But, if any undemocratic institution imposes any clause of it on us, then it will be wrong,” he said in a reference to the observation of a Supreme Court bench seized with the hearing of the method for voting in the Senate polls due on March 3.

“Any law and the Constitution can be amended only by the parliament, and we may work for broader electoral reforms after the Senate polls, although the government is neither contacting any party, nor it wishes to get it [such an amendment] passed from the parliament,” he told a press conference at the residence of Makhdoom Ahmed Mahmood here on Wednesday.

Blaming the government for trying to “change rules during the game” for its benefit, by using the shoulders of the institutions, he asked why they had not objected to the secret ballot in the last election for Senate chairman office.

He hoped that both the apex court and the Election Commission of Pakistan would uphold the Constitution with regard to the secrecy of ballot.

Responding to a query, he said apparently the establishment looked neutral and it should be welcomed, like it was criticised for not being neutral [in political affairs].

Stressing that impartiality of the institutions guaranteed development of the country, the PPP chairman said that his party never got any support from the institutions during its terms in power.“Now we have exposed this selected and incapable government, not only before the people of Pakistan, but also before the entire world. This government tried to commit a massive rigging in the by-election in Daska, but was exposed.”

He thanked the PML-N and the JUI leadership for accepting PPP’s Syed Yousuf Raza Gillani as joint candidate of the PDM for the Senate seat from Islamabad. He said the parliamentarians could vote for Mr Gillani, who had been listening to all the members as prime minister, or choose the “PTI-IMF nominee” (advisor to PM on finance Hafeez Sheikh), who would not take calls of the parliamentarians even when he was in the PPP cabinet.The PPP chairman said a group of journalists had been forcing them not to take part in the by-elections and to resign from assemblies. “But I made it clear that they should not try to teach us politics, as we don’t teach them journalism. “

He said an independent parliament was solution to the economic mess and unprecedented poverty and price-hike in the country.

Earlier, a meeting of members of National and Punjab Assemblies was held under the chair of Mr Bhutto-Zardari. It discussed upcoming Senate elections and the anti-government movement.

The meeting was attended by Mr Gillani, Mr Mahmood, Qamar Zaman Kaira, Hassan Murtaza, Makhdoom Usman Mehmood, Ali Haider Gillani, Hina Rabbani Khar, Azizur Rehman Chan and others.

Published in Dawn, February 25th, 2021