Judiciary applying double standards, says Bilawal

KARACHI: Accusing the superior judiciary of adopting double standards, Foreign Minister and PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari Sunday asked what the judges were trying to look for in the NAB law amendment case. He asked them to go ahead if they wanted to disband the NAB.

Addressing an event at the Sindh Assembly to mark the golden jubilee of the 1973 Constitution, Bilawal said there was corruption in every institution, including the judiciary and executive.

“We are following a holy cow system, where there are separate laws for the common man and holy cows. There should be one law for the common man as well as a judge,” he insisted.

“Each Pakistani is equal before the Constitution, which is being continuously attacked since its formulation,” he said. “We will not tolerate a dual justice system. You can re-write the Constitution to save your favorite but just an editorial is enough to send Benazir Bhutto’s government home. It is difficult for parties like the PPP to defend such practices,” he declared, local media reports.

“A judicial system of such double standards can’t run where a prime minister from Larkana is sent to the gallows while the cases of prime minister from Zaman Park continue to be deferred. We will not tolerate this system. The judges are making a mockery of themselves,” he asserted. He said it was impossible to change the whole law for saving the government of an individual.

The PPP, the minister said, had been saying from day one that the NAB was created for political engineering. “I wonder what the judges are trying to look for in the NAB law amendment. If they want to disband the NAB, go ahead, we are not interested in it,” he declared.

Bilawal said the country was facing the consequences of religious hatred spread in the era of Ziaul Haq. He said the Constitution was an agreement between the state and the nation. The Constitution has given the people an Islamic Federation and Pakistan is a country of pro-democracy people, he added.

The foreign minister said the PPP passed the 18th Amendment and introduced the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP).

In the previous governments, the rulers used to send their opponents behind the bars. The PPP gave a chance to Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PMLN), which led to the success of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, he added.

Bilawal said a selected prime minister came into power not to fix the prices of essential commodities but to benefit his own family.

“We became successful in the no-trust motion against this man who was installed in violation of the system and the Constitution. The 18th Amendment is not a real problem for them but the 1973 Constitution. They didn’t accept it earlier nor were they accepting it now. We thought to remove an undemocratic person by launching a democratic attack,” said Bilawal.

“The undemocratic person is now gone but the mindset has not changed yet. The former premier [Imran Khan] damaged the country for his own interests and divided every institution. We don’t know how long would it take to recover from the damages incurred to the country by Imran’s regime? We are going through constitutional, political and economic crises. We faced many challenges. How can we deal with the issues of inflation, poverty and hunger if we keep fighting each other? If we keep fighting from Peshawar to Karachi, then it will only benefit the terrorists,” said the foreign minister.