PPP won’t support govt bid to amend Constitution: Bilawal

Party chief says PML-N leaders crossed all limits in criticising judiciary, other institutions

KARACHI: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has announced that his party will not support the PML-N government’s bid to amend the Constitution in the wake of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s disqualification under articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution.

The apex court’s five-judge bench disqualified Nawaz Sharif as he had not mentioned his assets in his nomination papers for 2013 polls, which it considered proof that he was not ‘sadiq’ (truthful) and ‘ameen’ (trustworthy) as required by the two articles.

"The PPP has its own principles and will not follow anyone else’s line to support any amendment to the Constitution," Bilawal said on Monday after offering prayers at the mausoleum of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.



Bilawal said the country was going through a critical phase in its history and the PPP would not create a situation leading to a confrontation among institutions.

"After Sharif’s disqualification, the federal government and PML-N leaders crossed all limits in criticising the judiciary and institutions. They are now contemplating making new laws in haste to provide relief to the deposed prime minister, but Sharif cannot get respite from them," he added.

Bilawal extended greetings to the entire nation on 70^th Independence Day and urged that every Pakistani has to play his or her role to create a great egalitarian role-model Muslim country according to vision of its founding fathers.

“The people of Pakistan have been deprived of the fruits of freedom and independence. The enemies of the ideology of Pakistan let loose terror, heroin, and Kalashnikov culture against the people to crush their dreams,” he added.

The PPP chairman said 70 years were enough to achieve maturity as a nation, but dictatorships and their political prodigies had marred Pakistan’s progress and achievements.

“Democracies have only lasted for small intervals in our history while most of the time the country had been under dictatorial or unconstitutional rule, where the masses were subjected to ruthless physical and economic atrocities to keep them under perpetual subjugation,” he said.



Bilawal said he could not forget more than 50,000 martyrs who laid down their lives in nation’s fight against terrorism, which targeted law enforcement and common people, including students, women, and youths.

“Right from schools to hospitals, garrisons to mosques, government to private installations, NGOs to political parties, the terrorists are targeting everything which strengthens Pakistan,” he added.

Later, Bilawal paid a surprise visit to the Peoples Secretariat near Mazar-e-Quaid and intermingled with party workers. He also visited the Shuhada Gallery, containing portraits of hundreds of party workers who have been killed during the 50-year history of the PPP and said a prayer for them.