Alvi shouldn’t be Imran’s ‘mouthpiece’

ISLAMABAD:

Key ministers of the ruling coalition, while lashing out at President Dr Arif Alvi for “interfering” in the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) affairs, on Saturday said the head of the state should not resort to becoming PTI chairman Imran Khan’s ‘mouthpiece’.

In separate statements, the interior, defence and law ministers reminded the president about his constitutional position, saying he should stay above politics and refrain himself from committing the same mistakes that he allegedly made in the past by acting on the PTI chairman’s advice.

“Arif Alvi should act as [the] president of Pakistan,” Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said in a statement.

“You should not act as Imran Khan’s spokesperson,” he added.

While urging him to respect his office, the interior minister reminded the president that the PTI chief had earlier made him; the National Assembly speaker and deputy speaker; and the governor to violate the Constitution.

“The Supreme Court had declared [those actions] unconstitutional,” the minister recalled, referring to the SC verdict on April 7 last year to set aside the NA deputy speaker’s ruling to dismiss the no-trust resolution against then premier Imran and the subsequent dissolution of the lower house of parliament by President Alvi on the prime minister's advice.

Similarly, the government believed that then Punjab governor Omar Sarfraz Cheema had violated the Constitution by refusing to swear in then CM-elect Hamza Shehbaz.

“The president has nothing to do with announcing the election date,” the interior minister maintained.

Sanaullah accused the president of interfering in the constitutional authority of the ECP, claiming that Imran was trying to exert pressure on the commission through the office of the president.

The minister further claimed that Alvi was an accomplice in the prohibited funding case.

Separately, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif also criticised the president for interfering in the electoral watchdog’s affairs.

The minister also reminded the president that he should think about the honour and prestige that his office held,

“Mr Arif Alvi, stay within your constitutional limits,” Asif tweeted.

The minister asked the president not to interfere in the ECP’s constitutional limits and refrain from taking such steps while being the president -- a position considered above politics.

“Don't do politics. If not your own, think about the honour of your position,” he added.

Asif alleged that Alvi had “occupied” the position of the president as a result of the “selection” held in the 2018 general elections -- a tacit reference to the PML-N’s claim that those polls were rigged by the ‘powerful circles’.

In his tweet, Asif also attached a decision of the apex court for “reference and warning”.

A sentence of the SC judgment read: “Thus, it is held that, he (President) represents the majesty of the State, is at the apex, though only symbolically, and has rapport with all manner of people and parties, being above politics. Therefore, [the] actions of [the] President in the year 1990 supporting his favoured candidates or a group of political parties [were] against [the] fundamental rights of citizens under Article 17 of the Constitution.”

Law and Justice Minister Azam Nazeer Tarar also reminded the president in a tweet that the Constitution did not authorise him to give dates for the provincial assembly elections.

He added that Alvi should not criticise the ECP on the directives of his “leader”.

A day earlier, President Alvi invited Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sikandar Sultan Raja for an urgent meeting on February 20 regarding consultations on the dates for elections in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab.

The letter was written after the president did not receive a response from the ECP on his previous letter written on February 8.

In the second letter, the president expressed his displeasure over the “apathy and inaction” on the part of the electoral watchdog, which had not responded to his earlier letter as yet.

In response, the CEC stated that he had expected that the president would use “better choice of words” while addressing other constitutional institutions.

The CEC added that the ECP abided by the Constitution and law and the electoral watchdog’s job was to conduct elections whereas the president and governors were responsible for announcing election dates.

Following Raja’s letter, the interior, defence and law ministers also criticised the president for pressuring the ECP to announce the election dates and for allegedly acting as the spokesperson for the PTI, the party which he belonged to.