Army chief does not have right to issue political statements: Aitzaz Ahsan

PPP leader says courts should only speak through just judgement.

LAHORE:  Pakistan Peoples Party Senator Aitzaz Ahsan, commenting on Chief of Army Staff Gen Ashfaq Pervaiz Kayani’s statement, said that he did not have the authority to issue political statements, DawnNews reported on Tuesday.

Addressing journalists outside the Lahore High Court (LHC), Ahsan said that the court’s interim order was not implementable and was similar to Article 58 – 2B which allows sacking elected representatives.

He said that if the government or Army did anything that was against the judiciary, people would take a stand.

He also said that the courts should only speak through just judgement and the COAS did not have the right to issue political statements.

The chief justice had earlier asserted that weapons alone could no longer assure national security and that the Supreme Court was the absolute authority with regards to the national interests of state.

Later, in a statement issued by the ISPR, Kiyani had said that no individual or institution had the monopoly to decide what was right or wrong in defining the ultimate national interest.

He also said that the weakening of institutions and trying to assume more than one’s due role will set the country back.