Imran Khan tried to convert institutions into Tiger Force: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Tuesday that former Prime Minister Imran Khan had started targeting every national institution after his ouster.

Addressing a press conference, Bilawal said he saluted every institution that refrained from rescuing Imran Khan through any unconstitutional and undemocratic way. "The institutions of parliament, the Election Commission of Pakistan and establishment had been made controversial due to a single person after the 2018 general elections," he added. He said that they were a witness to the efforts of national institutions that had done away with their controversial role and assumed their constitutional responsibilities. He said that not just the PPP but every citizen was under an obligation to become hopeful about the role of the institution once they had quit their controversial roles. He said that Imran Khan had made an attempt to transform every national institution to his “Tiger Force” but the conspiracy failed as Pakistan’s future was bright and linked to democratic transition.

Meanwhile, JUIF head Maulana Fazlur Rehman said the PTI was trying to pressurise national institutions, including the judiciary, ECP and the media, through allegations and criticism. However, he said the tactics had failed. “The institutions will have to make firm decisions while remaining in their limits. It is also necessary to bring the country on its real path and remove the stigma from them for being a favourite of any party or individual. The foreign funding case will be a test case,” he said in a tweet.

Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said, “We had always complaints about the establishment’s unconstitutional interference and the judiciary’s failure to protect the Constitution. If martial law had been imposed, it would have been according to the tradition. When the establishment and the judiciary are playing their constitutional roles, Imran Khan and his party have started abusing them.”

PTI leader and former information minister Fawad Chaudhry said the Constitution gives the right to an elected Prime Minister to appoint the army chief and others. In a tweet, he said the PMLN-led government had no right to such regular appointments. “The country and institutions will face anarchy if the imported government makes any such appointment,” he said, adding that an elected government would make regular appointments as the present government was temporary.

Responding to him, PPP Senator Mustafa Nawaz Khokhar said that making the appointment of the army chief controversial was an attempt by the PTI to push the country towards anarchy. “Your statement is an attempt to create a divide in the army,” he tweeted. Quoting the example of Iraq and Libya, Khokhar said, “You can differ with the army but it is a national institution.”