Judiciary interfering in domain of legislature, executive: Murad

Pakistan will progress and flourish if the three pillars of the state — legislature, executive and judiciary — work within their constitutional domain.

Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah said this on Friday as he concluded the pre-budget debate in the Sindh Assembly. Lamenting that various institutions had tried to encroach upon one another’s jurisdictions, he said such interference in each other's domain had affected the development of the country.

The CM recalled that the Sindh Assembly had through legislation changed the name of the Gambat Institute of Medical Sciences to Pir Abdul Qadir Shah Jilani Institute of Medical Sciences but a court undid that amendment.

“I have directed my legal team to prepare an appeal,” he said, stating that courts could not undo such legislation. Shah said that he had also directed all his departments to prepare a list of such court decisions which were deemed as acts of interference in the domain of legislature so that appeals could be filed against them.

He added that the late Pir Abdul Qadir Shah Jilani had served Sindh as an MNA five times and as a federal minister. “Dedicating an institution after his name is a recognition of his services and it was done by the assembly, therefore it could not be changed.”

The CM said judges were summoning the chief secretary, inspector general of police and other government officers and threatening them with consequences if they did not implement their orders. In the next step, courts would summon the chief minister, he remarked, calling it an interference in the matters of the executive.

He opined that drawing parallels between Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and Pakistan Peoples Party founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto would be injustice to the history of the country.

“Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto said that he was ready to sacrifice his life for the sake of this country and went on to say that he would not hesitate to sacrifice his children for the country which he did,” Shah said.

Calling Imran the leader of a fascist party, the CM said the PTU chairman had been using his innocent workers as a human shield to protect himself. Bhutto bravely accepted the gallows while Imran was hiding, Shah remarked.

Quoting Bhutto’s speech at the United Nations in 1971, he said that the PPP founder had refused to address then Indian foreign minister Swaran Singh as ‘distinguished’ because his hands were tinted with the blood of people of Pakistan.

He added that likewise, Imran had openly been tinting his hands with the blood of his innocent workers. The CM recalled that Benazir Bhutto knew that she would be killed upon her return to the country but she returned to Pakistan. Contrary to her, Imran had deputed a member of a banned outfit for his protection, the CM alleged.

He said this was the the difference between true democratic leaders and a fascist party that believed in bloodshed and defying the law of the land as well as court orders. Quoting from speeches and announcements made by Imran in the past, Shah said the PTI chairman called for committing violence against judges and removal of the army chief.

“When I was studying, he [Imran Khan] was playing cricket and when he turned 50, he started studying that’s why he has no sense, no political wisdom, and no respect for anybody,” the CM said.

Law and order

Shah said that some of the members from the opposition benches took up the issue of kidnappings for ransom by dacoits in the kutcha area of Sindh. He explained that the kutcha area started from the sea up to Kashmore where the problem of bandits persisted at the tri-border of Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab.

Shah said he had spoken to the chief ministers of Balochistan and Punjab for holding a meeting of the officials concerned to chalk out a strategy for launching a vigorous clean-up operation against the dacoits. He added that the proposed meeting could not take place, but he was working with the army, intelligence agencies and police to start the operation.

Floods

The CM said that the floods of 2022 had wreaked havoc on the infrastructure and economy of the province, therefore his government took austerity measures. “During the last eight months, up to February 2023, we have spent only Rs80 billion against an allocated budget of Rs148 billion,” he said.