PTI accuses govt of ‘weaponising’ justice

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s parliamentary leader Senator Ali Zafar in the Senate Wednesday accused the government of ‘weaponising’ justice, calling political persecution an ‘admission of fear’ and warning that undermining justice weakens the foundations of the state.

He said, “History teaches us if leaders turn the tools of justice into weapons of oppression, they weaken the very foundations of the state and, when justice becomes a pawn in the hands of the powerful, it leads to movements that topple regimes”.

Ali Zafar pointed out that justice is being buried and courts have become battlegrounds. No country, he said, could progress where there is no justice, adding the economic plan of the government would not take off without respect for justice and unless the manipulation of courts was stopped. Referring to the remarks made by the law minister and other government leaders claiming the Al-Qadir case is an ‘open-and-shut’ matter, Zafar retorted that “the only thing open is their imagination, and the only thing shut is their knowledge of the law”. He noted that similar claims in the Toshakhana and cipher cases had collapsed in court due to lack of evidence, exposing the government’s misuse of justice for political vendettas. In the Al-Qadir case, he claimed that the case was bogus and fake and that lies could not become truth by shouting and repeating and the public would not believe the falsehood.