ISLAMABAD: Opposition Leader in the Senate, Aitzaz Ahsan, has demanded a full court bench of the Supreme Court to investigate reports that the court’s registrar interfered with the Panama case probe.
Talking to the media after the Parliament’s joint session on Thursday alongside other opposition leaders, the Pakistan Peoples Party senator alleged that the prime minister planted a news report to pressurise the Supreme Court.
A recent article claimed that the Supreme Court registrar made a WhatsApp and FaceTime call to the chairman of the Security and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, suggesting a particular name for inclusion in the Panama case Joint Investigation Team (JIT).
Ahsan termed it a fabricated story, and alleged that the prime minister wants to make the JIT and the Supreme Court controversial as they are investigating his financial dealings abroad.
He added that action should be taken if the registrar is found guilty, and urged the Chief Justice of Pakistan to take this news report seriously.
Talking about former PML-N senator Nehal Hashmi’s outbursts against ‘those investigating the PM’, Ahsan said Hashmi was speaking Nawaz Sharif’s words. He claimed that the former senator got carried away in his message, but would still be awarded by the PM later on.
Before Ahsan, opposition leader Khursheed Shah also claimed that the federal government is behind Hashmi’s outburst.
Talking about the joint session, he said the opposition was united in the decision to boycott the president’s speech. He added that “there has been nothing but chaos in the government since the last year.â€
The president did not speak about the problems faced by the people in Federally Administered Tribal Areas, he said further.
“The institutions have been threatened; judiciary and the armed forces have all been targeted. But, the president stayed silent on these issues,†he added. “The institutions are being challenged openly; the president has failed to perform his duties.â€
“We are not allowed to speak in the parliament,†he remarked, adding that the opposition members tried to solve the issue in the parliament and not on streets. “For the first time such a situation has come up that we have to take to the streets.â€
A senator made startling remarks and immediately that senator was removed from the post. The opposition believes that the government was behind the remarks made by that senator, Shah said while referring to statements made by Hashmi.
“The government wanted to threaten the institutions, which it has done now,†he added.
Addressing the media, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s Shah Mehmood Qureshi remarked that if he was in the government he would have pondered over why opposition is reacting so aversely.
Opposition’s protest should have government analyse the measures they have taken to turn opposition completely against them.
“The government can get the budget passed with majority. But, this compromises the rules of democracy,†he added.
Government pushed the opposition to hold a session outside National Assembly, said Jamaat-e-Islami’s chief Siraj-ul-Haq. “Government is responsible for all its actions.â€