LAHORE: Opposition leader in the Punjab Assembly Malik Ahmad Bhachar castigated the rulers for misinterpreting the letter of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, saying there was nothing objectionable in it; Khan and his party stand united with the Pakistan Army.
While addressing at a press conference on Tuesday, the PTI leader said that it was Khan’s right to write the letter to the Army chief and he only expressed his solidarity with the army in the letter. He justified the letter by saying that no one can ignore the role of the establishment (in the country’s affairs), adding that in the past they never denied the meeting between PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan and the Army chief.
He declared the 26th Amendment a coup d’etat, saying three judges from outside were inducted (in the Islamabad High Court) to overwhelm the Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) and influence the verdicts (in cases filed against the PTI).
He rejected the 26th Amendment, saying the passage of this amendment was mala fide; “the government claims that the Constitution gives them the room to carry out the amendment, but not with turncoats. A party holding two-third majority single handedly or with allied parties has the moral and legal right to amend the Constitution, but the PML-N-led government used turncoats to pass the bill,” he added.
He continued that after the passage of the amendment, the government’s first mala fide action was the executive order inducting three judges. He commended the bar councils for opposing this action, and the PTI supported their cause.
The opposition leader castigated the Punjab government for creating a mess in agriculture, saying due to its imprudent decision of not buying wheat from the farmers, Punjab is seeing a 30 percent drop in wheat sowing area this year. “Its decision to please a few people will result in an acute wheat shortage, which will lead to famine in the country; subsequently, the government will decide to import inferior wheat from abroad through their favourite vendors,” he added.
He also came hard on Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz for making hollow claims about improving education and health sectors. He said that right now government hospitals are facing an alarming situation, as it was facing a shortage of medicines. He claimed that the government has failed to clear the medicine bill worth Rs 700 million in the last seven months.
“Hence, companies have stopped the supply of medicines; what kind of good governance is this? It is feared that in the next 10 days, government hospitals will have no medicine stock; the CM needs to focus on this rather than self-publicity and misuse of government funds,” he added.
Talking about the PTI rally on February 8 against “rigged elections”, he urged the Punjab Police to refrain from using force against their party leaders and workers on that day.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
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