ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry took strong exception to the “attitude” of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA), saying bar councils should not become ‘subsidiary of political parties’ as their office-bearers are elected through votes of lawyers associated with different political parties.
Talking to journalists outside apex court along with Minister for Energy Hammad Azhar and special assistant to the prime minister on political communications Shehbaz Gill, he called upon bar councils of Pakistan to take notice of what he called ‘highly biased attitude’ of some office-bearers of the SCBA.
“I would like to ask the bar councils to hold them [the SCBA office-bearers] accountable for making entire bar hostage to their whims,” he added.
The president SCBA, Ahsan Bhoon, had filed a petition regarding restraining political parties from holding public meetings in Islamabad before voting on the no-confidence motion.
In his petition, the SCBA president had prayed before the apex court to direct the National Assembly speaker to carry out the process of no-confidence motion according to the Constitution, which left the ruling PTI to call upon the SCBA to stay ‘neutral’.
About the looming threat of no-confidence motion, the information minister said that “if the opposition thinks it is going to be easy, they are in for a rude awakening”.
He said that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) respects all the judges of the apex court and hope that they would give their verdict according to the law and the constitution.
The minister condemned the alleged social media drive by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) against the Supreme Court bench hearing the presidential reference on Article 63-A.
To a question, he said that the Supreme Court had given clear guidelines for holding public rallies in Islamabad.
He said that March 27 ‘power show’ will be historic as people all over the country who want the country to be prosperous will reach Islamabad to strengthen the hands of Prime Minister Imran Khan. He said the allied parties are part of the government and they will remain so.
Hammad Azhar, while terming the opposition movement an attack on the country’s emerging economy, said it is also destined to fail like all other anti-government and anti-people drives of the past.
“The opposition political movement is not just an attack on politics, rather it a wilful attempt to attack the country’s emerging economy,” he declared.
He said the country’s economy was growing at over five percent for the last two consecutive years. The World Bank in its report also declared that there was lowest unemployment in Pakistan as compared to other countries of the region, he added.
He said the incumbent government put the national economy on the right track, which he claimed was left on the verge of bankruptcy by the PML-N.
Azhar said that large scale manufacturing witnessed over eight per cent increase, while the country’s export has reached $30 billion.
He said that the country’s foreign reserves have also been doubled compared to the PML-N tenure, adding it was an old tactic of the PML-N to make national institutions controversial and then shed crocodile tears.
Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Farrukh Habib said that a “gang of plunderers of national wealth” got united to bring a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Imran Khan to save the national wealth looted by them when in power in the past.
Shahbaz Gill said that cracks have already become visible within the ranks of the opposition parties, and their ‘honeymoon’ is set to end shortly.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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