LARKANA: Hinting at the possibility of intervention if the prevailing crisis continues, PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari warned on Tuesday that neither Shehbaz Sharif nor Imran Khan will come to power next time around, and it would be the people of Pakistan who will have to bear the consequences.

Addressing a select gathering in Naudero House to mark the 44th death anniversary of his grandfather and PPP founder Zulfikar ali Bhutto, the foreign minister said that in the previous elections Imran Khan was brought to power through rigging, but this time around they would not allow the electoral process to be sabotaged.

He said the coalition partners in the Centre were wise to the game being played with the nation’s future, and repeated the demand to form a larger bench of Supre­me Court. Mr Bhut­to-Zardari said he feared that the battle for Takht-i-Lahore (the throne of Lahore) would sink the country.

Recalling the reference filed by his father Asif Ali Zardari over the judicial murder of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, he said it was still pending before Supreme Court, but the Constitution framed by his grandfather was broken time and again.

Tracing the history of illegitimate steps that were provided cover by the judiciary, he said that both General Zia and General Musharraf’s coups were declared legitimate, while his mother Benazir Bhutto’s democratic government was hardly allowed to run and survived for a mere 11 months. Then again, in 1996, her government was dismissed and the judiciary did not act to restore it.

He also referred to Murtaza Bhutto’s murder, saying that it was ironic that they were held to be suspects, even though the crime was committed against his family.

Recalling that former chief justice Iftikhar Chaudhry was one of the judges who legitimised Musharraf’s takeover, he said that the same judge removed a democratically elected PM, Yousaf Raza Gilani, for allegedly violating the Constitution. He said that it was under Iftikhar Chaudhry that judicial dictatorship was born and it still continued in the form of a ‘one-man show’.

Published in Dawn, April 5rd, 2023