PML-N inviting dictatorship by targeting judiciary, says Aitzaz Ahsan

Lauds COAS Bajwa, Raheel Sharif for leading from the front

ISLAMABAD: The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) is conspiring to overthrow the democratic system by blatantly targeting the judiciary, said Senate opposition leader Aitzaz Ahsan on Thursday.

In his farewell speech in the Senate, Ahsan came down hard on the PML-N, saying that they only accepted court decisions that favoured them but resorted to confrontations with the judiciary whenever any decisions did not suit them.

Without directly naming former prime minister Nawaz Sharif or his associates, the Pakistan People Party (PPP) leader said the politicians who were targeting the judiciary in public rallies were inviting a coup.

He asked fellow politicians to do self-accountability instead of targeting state institutions.



The PPP leader said Nawaz Sharif always had court verdicts in his favour, but when the court returned some verdicts against him, the former premier alleged that “these verdicts were being written somewhere else”.

“If these verdicts are written somewhere else, why don’t you [Sharif] expose them,” he questioned.

According to him, the court had been showing restraint despite the use of derogatory language against judges.

When the same court handed down judgment in the Hudaibiya Paper Mills case, the Sharif family appreciated the verdict since it favoured them, he said. “But when any court gives a decision that does not suit the rulers, they do not accept it."

He also quoted an example of a court decision in the Orange Line train case. “All they want is a kangaroo court and judges like [former AGP and LHC Justice] Malik Qayyum.”

Ahsan alleged that the Punjab government was behind the recent strike of civil servants. “Such actions were an invitation to overthrow the government and military takeover.”

When top leaders of the ruling party did not spare the country’s chief justice, one can only imagine how much pressure the accountability court judge who is hearing their case would be facing.

The PPP leader claimed that in any civilised country, had a case such as the one where Sharif was disqualified for having a foreign work permit come to the courts, he would have been sent to jail.

The PML-N told the PPP to accept the verdict that ousted Yousaf Raza Gilani from the premiership for not writing a letter to Swiss authorities to re-open graft cases against then-president Asif Ali Zardari, who being president enjoyed immunity, Ahsan stated.

Taking a jibe at Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi “for showing unconditional loyalty to Nawaz Sharif”, he said the incumbent premier violated the Constitution when he said that he would dissolve the assemblies whenever Sharif would ask him to do so.

According to him, it is a standard operating procedure for the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to put the names of accused persons on the exit control list (ECL), but this had not been done in the case of the Sharifs.

Ahsan also endorsed the speech Senator Farhatullah Babar made the other day.

“I totally agree with Babar who said the judiciary and the military should not cross their domains. I would like to add here, politicians also must not cross theirs,” he added.

He commended the armed forces, particularly COAS Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa and his predecessor Gen Raheel Sharif, saying “the duo always led from the front, unlike many former army chiefs who never came out of their cosy cabins”.

Report on mercy petition

PPP Senator Farhatullah Babar tabled a special report of the Functional Committee on Human Rights on the procedure of filing mercy petition in the House on behalf of its chairperson Nasreen Jalil. The report recommended to the government to immediately and publicly disavow the policy decision of not granting mercy petitions, in addition to publishing data relating to the exercise of the President’s power under Article 45 since December 2014.

It called on the government to reform the processes of submission of mercy petition by the prison authority on behalf of death row prisoners, who lack legal representation and that the government should constitute an executive committee, designated with the consideration of mercy petitions. It said all requests for mercy from prisoners should be forwarded by the superintendent jails along with complete jail and judicial record.



The committee recommended that the government should carefully consider the mercy petitions submitted on behalf of prisoners with serious mental or ill-health inmates with a view to commuting their sentences. “If a mercy petition is rejected, the families of the convict should be immediately informed by the Interior Ministry so that if they want to resubmit the petition on fresh grounds, it could be done,” it said.

The convener of Special Committee on China Pakistan Economic Corridor presented reports regarding a visit to Gwadar from May 2 to May 4, 2017, and also a visit to China from November 29 to December 3 last year.

The chairman of Standing Committee on Information Technology and Telecommunication presented special reports of the committee for the period from May 13, 2015, to February 28, 2018.

On behalf of the chairman of Standing Committee on Industries and Production, a member of the panel presented a special report of the committee for the period from October 2017 to February 2018.

On behalf of the chairman of the Standing Committee on States and Frontier Regions, a member of the panel presented the special report of the committee for the period from August 17, 2017, to February 23, 2018.