Punjab elections delay case: PTI ready to accept apex court’s order: Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Thursday that the party always believed in the supremacy of the Constitution, and is ready to accept “whatever the apex court directs” in the Punjab elections delay case.

Talking to journalists outside the Supreme Court, Qureshi along with Fawad Chaudhary, Sheikh Rashid and others, said that elections are the only way forward to bring the country out of the prevailing political and economic crises.

He said that there is no other constitutional and democratic solution confronting the country except snap polls, which the incumbent regime is trying to linger on, which will prove to be damaging for the country.

He said that not accepting the head of the country’s single federal party – Imran Khan – by some people is nothing but stupidity as the reality is that the politics of the country without Imran Khan exists nowhere.

Qureshi said that “our respect is with the constitution and we all should bow down before the judges’ decisions as we believe in the sovereignty of people.”

He continued that there is a democratic and constitutional way to get the country out of the prevailing crisis, which “I would like to repeat is election and it is clearly defined in the constitution.”

He also said that if the government did not accept this bench, why its lawyers appeared before it today, adding the respect for the court is a must whether someone likes it or not.

Speaking on the occasion, Fawad Chaudhry said that the PTI is the biggest stakeholder of all, and if Imran Khan and the PTI are not stakeholders, who are the stakeholders in Pakistan then.

“Saying Imran Khan is not a stakeholder is quite foolish and those who think like this need some soul searching as the politics of the country revolves around Imran Khan only,” he declared.

Senator Faisal Javed accused the government ministers and the prime minister of committing contempt of court by delaying the implementation of the apex court’s orders. He said that the government is afraid of going for polls is because all the parties are afraid of Imran Khan’s popularity as it is a writing on the wall that the PTI is set to come back with a two-thirds majority.

Sheikh Rashid of Awami Muslim League (AML) feared that the ruling elite might prolong the talks as it knows a humiliating defeat awaits them if elections are held.

He said that anyone whether he is from the ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) or anywhere else will have to face the music if they dared to flout the apex court’s orders.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023