PTI govt ‘committing contempt of court’: PML-N

PML-N spokesperson Marriyyum Aurangzeb slams PTI govt’s press conference for interpreting court verdict

LAHORE: Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Information Secretary Marriyum Aurangzeb has said the government ministers are “committing contempt of court” by interpreting the court’s decision according to their own “whims and fancies”.

She was responding to the government ministers’ press conference held the other day after Lahore High Court’s verdict on PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif’s case that allowed him to travel abroad without indemnity bonds.

In a statement on Sunday, she said the summary of yesterday’s press conference was that the governing authorities “did not accept” the court’s decision.

“All sentences against Nawaz in all cases are currently suspended by the honorable court,” she said adding that the court had announced that in retrospect “sentences against Nawaz were wrong”.

Marriyum stressed that the decision also clearly stated that the government cannot overrule or interfere to impose conditions or put on the Exit Control List anyone whose sentences have been suspended by the honorable courts.

“When the court did not impose any conditions, how could the government supersede that verdict to levy such conditions?” she said, “The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf government should not try to overstep its jurisdiction and must refrain from acting as the court.”

The ministers, she said, are only “showing their frustration” through such statements by interpreting the court’s decision.

Marriyum urged the cabinet to deliberate on figuring out a way to remediate (PM) Imran Khan’s “incompetence and inadequacy”.

In an oblique reference, she said: “The cabinet must ponder on why tomatoes are more expensive than the dollar.”

The cabinet and its ministers instead of targeting opposition at press conferences must find out why their regime had to “borrow more than Rs11,000 billion” over just a year, she added.

PML-N’s information secretary lamented that the government ministers have time for such briefings when they have a host of crises on their plate. She advised the cabinet to ponder why tariffs of domestic gas jumped by 200 per cent and electricity by 34 per cent.

“They should figure out how country’s growth slumped from 5.8 to 2.3 while inflation shot from 3 per cent to 13 per cent,” said Marriyum.

“The government should work on how and when to give Pakistanis their promised 10 million jobs and five million houses. And most of all they need to worry about how to restart the businesses, trade, industry and markets they have shut down with their disastrous economic policies,” said the party information secretary.