Bilawal predicts legal battles ahead for Alvi

Painting a bleak future for Dr Arif Alvi after leaving the top public office of the country next month, Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the president failed to fulfil his constitutional responsibilities and would face legal challenges.

Talking to the reporters after attending the hearing of the Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s presidential reference at the Supreme Court, Bilawal thanked the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and the Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) for the unhindered elections of the chief ministers of Sindh and Punjab.

The PPP chairman expressed the hope that with the cooperation of these two parties, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif would be “unanimously” elected as the prime minister of the country.

“We are grateful to the Sunni Ittehad Council and the PTI, as they allowed Maryam Nawaz and Murad Ali Shah to be elected as the chief ministers of their respective provinces unopposed. Shehbaz Sharif is now on his way to unanimously being elected as the prime minister, and the credit goes to the two parties mentioned,” he told reporters.

Bilawal said that Alvi did not fulfil the responsibility of being president.

“He (Alvi) will now face many legal challenges, beginning with the night that he violated the Constitution and dissolved the (National) Assembly [in April 2022] despite the no-confidence motion,” he said.

“Now, he has again violated the Constitution and failed to fulfil his duty to convene a session of the National Assembly,” he added, while referring to the president’s returning of the summary for the inaugural session of the lower house of parliament.

In remarks about the prevailing political situation in the country, the PPP chairman said that the politicians needed to respect each other, emphasising that many issues facing the nation would resolve automatically if the politicians decided to put an end to their egos and internal grudges.

He defended the PPP’s choice of joining the PML-N to form a coalition government at the Centre. He said that the party joined the alliance to pull the country out of economic crisis, strengthen democracy, and bring stability to the country.

“It [the PPP] could have chosen to remain nonchalant about the entire situation. The onus was not on the PPP to form the government, owing to its numbers [in the National Assembly], but the country’s economy, democracy, stability, and the Federation were all at stake,” he said.

“This compelled the PPP to take a decision. The PPP decided to engage with the party it was approached by. The other party in this case, the Sunni Ittehad Council, did not approach the PPP for votes to begin with, so now they cannot object to someone else forming the government,” he said.

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“They [the SIC] made no efforts to do so by themselves. They made the decision to not engage with us themselves. We were then left with the option to engage with the party that approached us. The PPP will continue to provide [the PML-N] with its input through the parliamentary system.”

When asked about the enormity of the prevailing situation, Bilawal stressed that “more democracy” was the only solution to the problems of the people. At the same time, he underscored the importance of the “process of reconciliation” but added that it was difficult to carry out.

“At the time of the Charter of Democracy, both parties [the PPP and the PML-N] accepted their shortcomings and derived a future course of action. The PTI’s problem is that it refuses to accept its own mistakes and does not believe in the Constitution, democracy, or the system,” he said.

He referred to a news conference by PPP Co-chairman Asif Zardari after the Feb 8 general elections, in which he mentioned that the PTI could be a part of the reconciliation process.

“However, till date, the PTI refuses to admit its own faults,” Bilawal added.

When asked about his electoral promise of releasing all the political prisoners, Bilawal said that it was, in fact, the PPP’s aim after coming to power, “but the PPP is now in the position to make a proposal of it as advice” to the next government.

The PPP chief told reporters that the people of Sindh gave a historic mandate to the PPP for its performance in the province. About the appointment of new governors, he said that Zardari would shortlist the names of governors after he is elected president.

“The process has not yet begun.”

When asked about the role of the establishment, he said: “If we wish for the judiciary, the establishment, and other institutions to work within their domains, it is the politicians of the country that first need to understand the importance of engaging within their political boundaries. Otherwise, we cannot expect our judiciary, media, or any other institution to stay within their limits.”

Speaking about the proceedings in the presidential reference earlier in the day, Bilawal said that the court had been informed by amici curie about various aspects of the case. He added that every lawyer, who appeared in court, had “produced a mountain of evidence” about miscarriage of justice.

“They are proving that there was no judicial process or trial, but Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s assassination. Evidence is being presented before the court rapidly,” he said. “We hope that justice will be served at last and that the blot on the institution will be washed off.”