Govt not bothered by court decisions: PMLN senator

ISLAMABAD: PMLN parliamentary leader in the Senate Senator Irfan Siddiqui Tuesday said the ruling party was not worried about the decisions being announced by the courts.

“The culprit misuses the concession of long delay (Dheel) and makes it a shield,” he said in an interview with a private TV channel.

Talking about the PTI leaders’ acquittal, he said their cases had been pending for more than a year and when such concession was offered, it was misused as a shield by the perpetrators.

“The problem with the PTI is that it does not restrict itself to the political role and transgresses and violates national security,” he said.

He said President Asif Ali Zardari spent 10 years behind the bars and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was jailed and forced to leave the country but they always played their political roles.

Their political role was to keep the establishment out of political affairs but the PTI was bent upon dragging it in the politics, he charged.

“The PTI attacked the GHQ, Corps Commander House, Qila Bala Hisar and more than 200 other places, where they vandalized properties, desecrated martyrs’ memorials and torched air force planes. This is no politics,” the senator said.

“Comparing himself with Sheikh Mujeebur Rehman and releasing the video asking who is the traitor is another May 9,” he said.

“The statements of PTI leaders speak volumes that their stance on May 9 has not changed and have now started building a new narrative that it was a “false flag operation” pointing finger at the army for being behind the riots, he said.

He questioned if May 9 was a false flag operation, then why were the PTI leaders seen everywhere in the riots. “Who was heard talking about attacking the GHQ and Corps Commander House?” the senator questioned. He said Imran Khan did not bother to open Hamoodur Rehman Commission report during his four year’s rule and was now raising this issue with a malafide intention. “The recommendations of the report have not been implemented in last 53 years,” he said. “The question is who is the ‘Mukti Bahni’ of the day if Imran Khan compares himself with Sheikh Mujeeb and equates incumbent army chief with Yahya Khan?”

He said the PTI did not exist in the National Assembly and its legal brains had no clue about their decision to merge in a party, which did not even contest the election.

Responding to a question about the decision to abolish the NAB, the senator acknowledged that the government did not have two-thirds majority required for the constitutional amendment but said the parliamentary history of last 12 years was a witness to the fact that the political parties had joined their hands to bring amendments through political consensus.

He said the PMLN and PPP had already faced the wrath of the NAB and seemingly the next turn would be of the PTI. “However, it seems that the NAB would be abolished during the period of the current parliamentary period, as we are heading towards this goal,” he said. Responding to another question, the senator said that Nawaz Sharif’s election as the party president would be a good omen for the PMLN because he was and is the source of inspiration and strength for the party.