Institutions should remain within limits: Omar Ayub

LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Secretary General Omar Ayub said on Saturday that the armed forces and intelligence agencies are state employees as he called on the institutions to stay within their limits.

“Politicians are also bound to do their politics within the constitutional parameters,” the National Assembly opposition leader told the media in Lahore as he explained his point of view. In his conversation with the media on Saturday, Ayub said the PTI founder would move court seeking CCTV footage of the May 9 protests.

The PTI leader said no deal had been struck with anyone. He added that Khan had stressed that the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Pakistan Peoples Party were trying to create rift between the nation and the army. He claimed this was the year of a fresh election, and that’s why the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should be independent. “The government is plunging into a quagmire; however, they [rulers] are fools and unable to understand,” he said.

Meanwhile, in his conversation with reporters at Lahore’s Kot Lakhpat jail, PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that he had been in politics for 40 years and for 39 years, no case had been lodged against him — pointing towards dozens of cases registered following May 9 violence.

“Dozens of cases were lodged against me in a year. Now, whether anyone likes it or not, the PTI founder is a reality. There’s not going to be stability if they do not accept this reality,” Qureshi added.

Calling for cooling the political heat, the former foreign minister said that the nation’s leaders should stop calling their rivals “traitors”. For 75 years, he said, “we’ve been distributing traitor certificates.”