Elahi pledges support to CJ to uphold Constitution

Vows not to let Nawaz’s desire of ‘humiliating judiciary’ succeed

LAHORE:

PTI Central President Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi has lashed out at the prime minister, saying Shehbaz Sharif has followed the path of open rebellion against the Constitution.

The government on Monday had the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill, 2023 – which aims to curtail the powers of the chief justice of Pakistan to take suo motu notice and constitute benches on his own – passed by the joint sitting of parliament. The bill had been returned by President Arif Alvi to parliament for reconsideration.

During a meeting with senior Punjab bureaucrats, including Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ghuman, Chaudhry Waseem Ramey, Abdullah Yusuf Waraich, and others, on Monday, Elahi said: “Shehbaz Sharif is being given direct instructions by the government's ‘godfather’ (Nawaz Sharif) from London.”

The PTI central president, “Parliament cannot refuse to provide funds to the Election Commission of Pakistan [for holding elections].

“Anyone who refuses will be held in contempt of court.”

In the judicial wrangling among the Supreme Court judges, Elahi said, “The entire nation stands with Chief Justice (Umar Ata Bandial) to uphold the supremacy of the Constitution.”

Elahi vowed not to let Nawaz’s desire of “humiliating the judiciary” succeed.

On the one hand, he said, the 50th anniversary of the Constitution was being celebrated while on the other, the same Constitution was being flouted

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Elahi urged the Pakistan Peoples Party not be involved in the conspiracy to break the Constitution, “if it claims to have made the Constitution”.

In the form of Shehbaz, he said, the nation had been humiliated for a year.

“The lesson of the last year is that Shahbaz Sharif and Pakistan cannot go together anymore. Shahbaz Sharif's one-year government has shaken the hearth of the country.”

He said those who had brought Shahbaz a year ago were now “regretting it”.

“The wheel of the economy has been completely jammed and the credibility of the current government in international financial institutions has become zero.

“In a year, one million youth have left the country because of disappointment while people are dying in queues for free wheat flour.

“The imported government has given the people nothing but inflation, chaos, anarchy, destruction, ruin, despair and hopelessness.”