Defence minister criticises judiciary for ‘trespassing’ parliament’s jurisdiction by ‘rewriting’ Article 63-A of the Constitution n Terms PTI’s ‘fill the prison’ campaign a flop show as many of its leaders took selfies and disappeared n Holds PTI govt responsible for economic crisis.

ISLAMABAD    -    Minister for Defence Khwaja Muhammad Asif yesterday demand­ed a full court bench be constituted for the on­going suo motu pro­ceedings linked to the delay in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa KPK) elections.

The Supreme Court of Pakistan the other day had taken suo moto no­tice of delay in elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). The country’s top judge had taken notice of the issue on the recom­mendation of a bench and formed a larger nine-member bench for hearing.

President Arif Alvi a couple of days ago had announced the date of polls in two provinces, after refusal from the ECP Chairman to hold a meeting with him on this matter.

Requesting the top court to increase the scope of proceedings, Kh Asif suggested, “Why not examine if the dis­solution of assemblies was right or wrong?” “It is my request from the entire Supreme Court to find the solution to this matter,” he said, speaking on a point of order in the house.

“I do not want to give the impression that Parliamentarians are trespassing the juris­diction of judiciary but I, as a political worker, demand to resolve this 

complicated situation which is being faced by the country during the last 7-8 months,” he remarked.

Asif clarified that he was not criticiz­ing anyone whose character has ques­tion mark but requested for a full bench. “I think there can be redressal for the things that have happened in the past eight months,” he remarked.

“There are some ex-judges like Jus­tice Muneer Hussain and Riaz Sheikh who are criticized but others like Saeed uz Zaman Siddiqui and Nazim Siddiqui are known for their dignity,” he said and appealed to the judiciary to review why some amongst them are criticized yet.

The Defence Minister also criticised the judiciary for “trespassing” the par­liament’s jurisdiction by “rewriting” Ar­ticle 63-A of the Constitution.

About the Panama case against for­mer Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, he said the judges dealing with the ref­erence had called the PML-N supremo various “wrong names”... “This top ju­diciary should ask itself. It is not on me to explain the causes of this discrim­ination ...I will leave it up to the judi­ciary,” he said. He said the “first consti­tutional accident” in the country took place when a judge had declared the doctrine of necessity valid. The “first political martyrdom” in the country was when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged.

The minister also criticized PTI chief Imran Khan for not appearing in courts, saying that no such allowance was af­forded to PML-N leaders when the gov­ernment of Nawaz Sharif was ousted.

About the ‘Jail Bharo Tehreek’ [Vol­untary Arrest Movement], he said only 81 PTI members have courted their ar­rests. “Many of them took selfies and disappeared near the prison van,” he said. About the recent visit in Kabul, he shared with the house that the recent talks with Afghan authorities in Kabul were “positive”. He also regretted that the previous government backtracked from its agreement with the IMF. He said the coalition government inherit­ed an economic crisis and the mess of the past four years cannot be cleared in a matter of eight or nine months.

Asif further said that the government is fully cognizant of the problems faced by the common man, but it will take time to put the economy back on track.

The Minister said that the salary of a Member of the National Assembly is Rs 168,000 only and some of them even come on foot from Parliament Lodg­es to National Assembly House be­cause they cannot afford lifestyle of a rich person. “There are some elites for whom traffic remains stuck for 15 min­utes and the curfew-like situation is im­posed on their movement,” he said and mentioned that only politicians are crit­icized. He said that Parliament had al­ways been restricted to perform its ac­countability role and incumbent head of PAC Noor Alam Khan did not get suc­cessful to make accountability of cer­tain institutions.