Govt to ‘punish’ violators of Constitution

The government has decided to take action against the former deputy speaker and other members of the previous Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government for allegedly violating the Constitution, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said on Saturday.

Aurangzeb told media persons that failure to punish those responsible for such a blatant abrogation of the Constitution would be tantamount to encouraging such behaviour in the future, adding that the brazen contempt for the law and Constitution could not be allowed to become a norm.

“Such actions should be dealt with in accordance with the law in a manner that should serve as a deterrent to them and ensure that they never happen again,” Aurangzeb said, adding that the PTI was already repeating the same in Punjab which made it necessary to take action against them.

The government spokesperson, while referring to the decisions taken in a series of meetings of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leadership in London this week, said that the details of the meetings would be shared with the government allies.

“All the decisions will be taken with their [allies] consent,” she said, emphasising that the government had a constitutional tenure but “any and all the decisions will be taken in consultation” with coalition partners.

The minister revealed that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif would address the nation with regards to taking a decisive action against the transgressors of the Constitution. In his address, Marriyum said, Shehbaz would also speak about the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and related matters.

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The government spokesperson emphasised that the PML-N believed in freedom of speech more than anyone else but if anyone would malign the national institutions then they would be dealt with in accordance with the law.

“Imran Khan considers himself above the Constitution and the law. He blatantly flouts rules and violates all legal bindings with contempt,” she said, questioning how he was using the government helicopter to fly to his public meetings, and defame the national institutions with his “venomous” false allegations.

“Under what capacity is Imran using the official helicopter of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government, when he does not hold any government office or post that merits such facilitation,” the information questioned.

Among other things, she said that Imran has blatantly admitted that he used NAB as an instrument of political victimisation, adding that the PTI was ruling K-P for the last nine years but the Ehtesab Commission there remained closed.

Addressing the youth, Marriyum said that they must remember that Imran left the dollar at Rs189; they must remember that “Imran gave an unapproved, unfunded subsidy on petrol prices without the approval of the Economic Coordination Committee (ECC)”.

Lambasting the previous government over its performance, the minister said that Imran was not in a position to ask questions of a government that came to power only a few weeks ago, saying that it was time for him to answer for the disasters that took place in his four-year tenure.

“It is time for you to answer for intentionally making matters difficult for the coming government by giving unsanctioned subsidy because you knew you would lose the vote of confidence,” the information minister said.

She recalled that the rupee was 105 to a dollar when former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was removed from the office and it was at Rs118 when the PML-N government completed its tenure in 2018. “But when Imran Khan left the Prime Minister House, the rupee had fallen to 189 to a dollar,” she added.

Food inflation during the PML-N tenure was 2.3%, she continued, but when Imran left it was 15%.  Pakistan’s total debt since its inception in 1947 to 2018 was Rs25,000 billion but in just three-and-a-half years, under Imran, the total debt reached Rs43,000 billion – an addition of Rs18,000 billion.

In his desperation to accuse the government of obstructing his public meetings, she said, Imran tried to illegally occupy a ground of the Christian community allocated for prayers and funeral, which they had objected to and protested. “The government had nothing to do with the PTI rally in Sialkot,” she said.