Bilawal seeks JIT on 'surveillance of judges'

Says investigation against those should be conducted who had brought information against Justice Isa

KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto on Saturday declared that the “surveillance of judges” was a grave issue and stated that the Supreme Court should institute a joint investigation team (JIT) on the matter.

“Pakistan Peoples Party has demanded that if references against judges can be filed, then a JIT should also be formed against those who had brought the information against Justice Qazi Faez Isa,” he said.

The PPP chairman made these remarks while addressing a press conference at the Chief Minister’s House in Karachi.



He observed that the joint opposition had given its viewpoint on the quashing of presidential reference by the apex court against Justice Isa in detail.

On Friday, the united opposition had welcomed the apex court’s verdict and demanded the resignation of the president and premier.

Bilawal stated the PPP believed that corruption prevailed in all segments of the society but the campaign that was launched to bring an end to it had different purposes.

He stressed upon the need to fight corruption and noted that if there were any issues of corruption in the bureaucracy, politics and judiciary, they needed to resolve in a democratic and transparent manner.

He emphasised that until the time victimisation and pressure tactics were used corruption could not be eliminated from the country.

He called for bringing an end to the practice of registering cases which were based on ill intent and sought vengeance on politicians, judges or civil society.

He appealed to the top court to take up the issue regarding the cases based on mala fide intent.

Commenting on the federal budget for the next fiscal year, Bilawal said that the outlay had been rejected by all the political parties.

“The budget presented by the government gives the impression that Covid-19 is not an issue for the country and people are not prone to it,” he said.

“There is no preference in the budget for combating the coronavirus, spending resources to save lives of people and improving the economic situation,” he added.

“The federal government should have announced a health or Covid-19 package for every province in the budget and the country has to increase its healthcare and testing capacity.”

Bilawal noted that the government had given preference to development over health at a time when the people in the country were fighting a pandemic.

“During a pandemic, the government is more interested in repairing roads.”

He claimed that the Rs70 billion budget earmarked by the government to fight the Covid-19 had been kept as “slush funds” for PTI MNAs.

Commenting on the locust attacks, Bilawal observed that it was the biggest attack in the last 25 years and the federal government had not paid heed to their requests to address the problem.

Deliberating on the National Finance Commission (NFC) award, he said the notification issued in this regard was “illegal” and demanded that complete NFC should be given to Sindh.

The PPP chairman said that the NFC award would be discussed with other opposition parties during an all parties conference.

Expressing his party’s support for the18th amendment, Bilawal agreed that it needed to be implemented in true spirit and powers ought to be devolved to union levels.

The PPP chairman also expressed his concern about possible takeover of three teaching hospitals in Karachi by the federal government saying that it would affect the specialised training programmes for doctors, nurses and healthcare personnel in Sindh.