Service of army chief: Bilawal links passage of constitutional amendment to 'new' PM

Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Monday linked the constitutional amendment for specifying the terms and conditions of service of a chief of army staff with change of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

"First our Prime Minister will be new and then the Constitution will be amended. It seems that the Prime Minister does not want to develop consensus with the opposition. The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government could not make a notification in three months, so I do not think it will be able to take the opposition into confidence in six months," Bilawal expressed these views while talking to media after meeting his father Asif Ali Zardari who is currently under treatment at Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS).

He said he made consultation with his party's lawyers and lawyers of bar councils, and all say that there is need of constitutional amendment for this purpose. "But we will know better when detailed judgment of the apex court would come," he said. The role of PPP would be positive and it would want to develop consensus but it seems that the Prime Minister does not want this, he further said.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari also announced that his party would submit a bail plea for former president Asif Ali Zardari on medical grounds - days after former prime minister Nawaz Sharif was allowed to travel abroad for medical treatment on a bail plea. "We do not trust Pakistani doctors," he said.

He said the party would file a bail plea on medical grounds for the former president who has a case against him in relation to fake bank accounts. He said PPP would not retreat from its political stance and file a petition until today (Tuesday).

The PPP chairman said Zardari had paid heed to the request of his sister Aseefa Bhutto to move the court for his bail and now they would file a petition.

In response to a question, he said that after consultation with opposition parties, Opposition Leader Shahbaz Sharif sent three names to the Prime Minister for the slot of chief election commissioner.

Criticizing Prime Minister Imran Khan, Bilawal said, "Our Prime Minister targets the opposition parties at every opportunity; the Prime Minister is still standing on the container; the Prime Minister's behaviour is a loss to the country and every institution."

Responding to a question, the PPP chairman said, "Our Prime Minster is proceeding in such a way that I think we will have a new Prime Minister first and then the Constitution will come."

He further said PTI foreign funding case had been going on for a long time and it had not been decided till now. "There is nothing in the foreign funding case against PPP," he claimed.

Answering another question about meeting with his father, Bilawal said that a number of things related to the country's political situation came under discussion.

"Our foundation day rally was very successful and Kashmiris showed full participation in it... We have decided to observe the death anniversary of Benazir Bhutto at Liaqat Bagh on December 27," he said.