ISLAMABAD: President Human Rights Cell of PPP ex-Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the recent awakening of the judiciary has provided a historic opportunity for the political parties to take the bull by the horns in securing freedom of politics, parliament, judiciary, and media from the invisible forces in a hybrid model of governance.

He said this while speaking at a seminar organised by the Shaheed Bhutto Foundation in Islamabad to mark the death anniversary of their party’s founder Chairman Zulfikar Ali Bhutto on Wednesday.

He said that the political situation in the country is disappointing as the politicians did not appear to be on the course correction path.

He said from political parties awarding senate tickets to independents wired to mysterious backers, formalising the hybrid through bodies such as the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC) and not investigating the mysterious attempt to amend the IRSA ordinance and thus, change the Indus delta landscape it appeared that political parties have yet to undertake any meaningful course correction.

He also called for the implementation of the 2019 verdict in the Faizbad dharna case and the 2012 verdict in the Asghar Khan case to hold accountable those who violated their oath. Keeping silent will not help. After the judiciary embarking on course correction, we must ensure that those who violated the oath are punished as ordered in the court verdicts. Punished they must be even if the punishment is symbolic in nature, he said

As long as the parliament, political parties, media and judges are amenable to manipulation and as long as the people are not the real sovereigns there will be no real democracy and no real freedom in the country, he said.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024