ISLAMABAD   -  Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Sunni Ittehad Council (SIC) on Thursday rejected any “expected” move not to implement the Supreme Court decision on reserved seats of the parliament.  

Both the parties also utterly rejected the government’s plan to ban the party of jailed leader Imran Khan and initiate proceedings against him under high treason charges.

In a joint Parliamentary Party meeting held at the Parliament House, both the parties discussed the prevailing political situation arising out of the Supreme Court judgment on reserved seats of the parliament, according to a statement issued by the PTI’s Central Secretariat.

The meeting attended by PTI Chairman Gohar Ali Khan, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Omar Ayub Khan and SIC chief Sahibzada Hamid Raza strongly condemned the government’s indirect messaging, through some “touts”, of not implementing the SC decision.

It added the ruling party Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), which was known for intimidating judges and attacking judiciary to take favourable decisions from the courts, was all-set to trample the SC’s orders.

The participants made it clear that the deviation from the SC decision regarding reserved seats would have very serious consequences that would lead to political instability and chaos.

They vowed that PTI would strongly resist any attempt to deviate from the decision of the top court at all levels.

The lawmakers condemned the announcement of the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif government to ban PTI and initiate proceedings of high treason under Article 6 of the Constitution against former prime minister Imran Khan.

The moot labelled the announcement to ban PTI as a proof of the desperation of the government saying it is already facing the question of legitimacy.

The participants were of the view that the decision to impose ban on the country’s “most popular political party” was contempt of SC because it is aimed at depriving PTI of the seats reserved for women and minorities in the parliament.

Demanding action against Chief Election Commission Sikandar Sultan Raja and other members of the Election Commission under Article 6, they highlighted several pieces of evidence, including the confession of former Commissioner Rawalpindi Liaquat Ali Chatta that general elections were rigged.

They insisted that action should be taken under Article 6 against all those who had facilitated the delay to hold general elections beyond the 90 days constitutional limit and were involved in alleged manipulation of February 8 polls.

They lamented that no positive progress had been made till yet in the cases of forcibly disappeared persons belonging to PTI leaders including the brothers of Azhar Mashwani, and Dr. Shahbaz Gill and of Rizwan Malik, a senior member of the Central Media Department.

They said that the party would take up these issues on the floor of the NA.

They demanded that the apex court should fix the petitions regarding mission persons for instant hearing so as to ensure their immediate release.

Earlier in the day, PTI parliamentarians held a protest walk from the Parliament House to the office of the Election Commission of Pakistan against the government’s plan to ban the party and appointment of ad hoc judges in the SC. PTI activist Sanam Javed, who has been recently released on a bail, also participated in the protest.