LAHORE: The PML-N on Saturday expressed reservations over the Supreme Court verdict in the cypher case, saying the episode had been used for political purposes, including the unconstitutional dissolution of the National Assembly and speeches delivered at public gatherings.
Malik Ahmad Khan – a senior PML-N leader who was accompanied by Azma Bokhari, party’s Punjab chapter spokesperson – said the remarks and observations given while granting bail to the PTI founding chairman and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the case – had raised some serious questions.
While expressing their respect for the judiciary, he told a press conference held at the PML-N headquarters in Model Town that the Supreme Court had noted the Official Secrets Act didn’t apply to the matter, despite the fact that the PTI had used the cypher to damage Pakistan’s relations with the United States.
Malik was referring to the allegation that the US was involved in “removing” the PTI government with the vote of no-confidence moved by the then opposition being part of that conspiracy. The accusation came as the PTI founding chairman became the first prime minister in Pakistan’s history to be moved through constitutional means. In fact, the vote of no-confidence is the sole mechanism prescribed by the Constitution in very parliamentary democracy to change the government.
PML-N warns against projecting the ‘favourite’ PTI ex-chairman as ‘innocent’
PML-N Spokesperson Marriyum Aurangzeb questioned the practice of presenting the PTI chairman as a “favourite” and “innocent” whenever liked, as she expressed her party’s reservations after the Supreme Court judges passed remarks while giving bail to him and Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the cypher case a day earlier.
She warned against issuing “innocence certificates” to one who had trampled the Constitution and said the people would decide about their future by exercising the right to vote in the upcoming general elections on February 8.
The issuance of innocence certificates doesn’t change the facts, Marriyum said at a press conference and added that an unsuccessful attempt was being made to save and impose the PTI founding chairman yet again.
The PTI founding chairman was imposed on the country and the people by projecting him as a “favourite” in 2018 and as an “innocent” in 2014, which won’t be allowed, the PML-N leader made it clear. Marriyum reminded the audience that the PTI former chairman was the one who had arrived at the Supreme Court in a Mercedes and was welcomed by the then chief justice with greetings like “good to see you”.
The PML-N spokesperson wondered how the person involved in the cipher saga who had damaged Pakistan’s foreign relations and orchestrated the May 9 attacks on state institutions could be declared innocent. She remarked that they had every right to accept or reject the judgment and said they were not among greeted with “good to see you” at the country’s top court.
