Chairman, Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan has appealed to the Supreme Court Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry to review the 19th Amendment, as in his opinion it was undermining the independence of judiciary. He was addressing a press conference here on Friday.
He termed the latest constitutional amendment passed by the National Assembly as a conspiracy against the judiciary, which provides veto power to the parliamentary committee on the selection of judges. He observed that under the 19th Amendment the parliamentary committee, which was dominated by a qazba group has the final say on the appointment of judges, and this would brew more institutional crisis in future. "We follow the British political system and politicians have no say in the appointment of judges; however the new amendment has placed the judiciary at the mercy of the executive. This step tantamount to inference in the judicial matters," he added.
While condemning the government for taking such step, Khan argued that this would open doors for more corruption, as it would encourage corrupt people to have their choice of judges to cover their corruption. To a question, he said the people wanted independent judiciary, for which they came out on streets and the 19th Amendment negates the concept of separation of powers.
While referring to a list of non-tax payees, he said 61 percent of the parliamentarians did not pay taxes, while only 9 percent paid tax over Rs 100,000. He observed that Pakistan was a cash-starved country and thus it was finding hard to spare resources to provide education, health, justice and basic facilities to the masses. "The reality is that there is no cash to run the country; the country is facing Rs 1 trillion deficit," he added.
He lambasted the government for failing to collect direct taxes from the rich and shifting the burden on to poor masses by imposing indirect taxes, which was the real cause behind inflation. He appealed to the political leaders to declare their assets both in Pakistan and abroad and pay their due taxes. He also urged the government to legislate a law that bans 'benami' (undeclared) assets/transactions, which will help in controlling tax evasion.
On gas load-management, Imran questioned the government's planning on the matter and added that closure of factories due to gas shortage has led to unemployment in the country. He said the government should give priority to industries for supply of gas to avoid job losses.
To a question, he said the PML-N betrayed the judiciary by supporting the 19th Amendment. He observed that there was a war between the supporter of status quo and anti-status quo; the corrupt was struggling to maintain status quo. He also said the PTI was gearing up for the future elections by organising the party at both the provincial and union council level, the process would complete in next six months. When asked about his assets, he said all his assets were in his name and he had multiple sources of income, and this year he had paid Rs 1.8 million in taxes.