Bilawal presses for consensus on impartiality of institutions

Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Sunday said that unless all political parties agree that the military establishment and the judiciary must remain "impartial", the country's future will remain wrapped in uncertainty.

Bilawal, who is also the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman, in a tweet reminisced on the Charter of Democracy (CoD) signed in 2006 by the two major political parties of the time, the PPP and the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) pledging not to side with undemocratic forces in a bid to topple each other’s government.

Hailing the agreement, Bilawal said that "the CoD laid out a framework for political parties to abide by."

"Until and unless we all agree that the establishment and judiciary must remain impartial, and the Constitution must reign supreme, the country is doomed to suffer experiments and their aftermath," he stressed.

Read PDM seeks local admin's permission for sit-in outside SC

Earlier this week, the PPP chairman had made it clear that his party was neither jubilant over the arrest of any politician, nor did it support the banning of any political party.

However, during the same press conference, he had said that it was up to his rival party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) to decide whether it wanted to function as a political party or as a terrorist organisation.

Yesterday, while addressing another ceremony, Bilawal said that "the politics of one person [Imran] has created wedges among the judiciary, media and people”.

Maintaining that Imran had resorted to political terrorism, Bilawal said the PPP was ready for elections and his party would defeat its rivals with the power of its votes.

The PPP chairman said similar to what the PPP had done in Karachi, his party would defeat political terrorists across the country with the strength of its ballots.

Taking a jibe at the higher judiciary for what the ruling coalition believes to be facilitating the PTI chief, Bilawal said the judges had turned the law into a joke.

“The judiciary shouldn’t turn into [Imran’s] Tiger Force,” he added.

The PPP chief's comments come as the ruling coalition, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) is all set to hold a sit-in outside the Supreme Court on Monday (tomorrow) to protest the judiciary’s undue facilitation to PTI Chairman Imran Khan.

The protest sit-in is coincided with the hearing of the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP)’s plea asking the top court to revisit its order of holding elections to the Punjab Assembly on May 14. The petition will be heard a day after the court-ordered election deadline lapses.