LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry warned on Friday that the country’s Constitution would be under threat if judiciary failed to protect it.
He has appealed the judiciary not to succumb to blackmailing of anyone and assured that the whole nation was united behind it.
“Maryam Nawaz believes that she could put judiciary under pressure by abusing it,” he said, adding: “It is their foolish plan of hiding their poor performance under the garb of criticism against others.”
He said Maryam Nawaz and her company had openly criticised judiciary when the matter of chief minister Punjab was sub judice. He recalled that five judges of the present bench were part of the bench when judiciary had rejected ruling of Deputy Speaker Qasim Soori.
The present government came into being on the basis of judgment from those five judges, he said and added that the PTI had urged the Chief Justice to constitute a full bench at that time, which was turned down. But we had not criticised judges at that time, he stressed.
Similarly, he said, no action was taken by the judiciary when Azam Swati was exposed to torture. However, a contempt of court notice was issued when Imran Khan commented on the verdict of a judge, he added.
He lamented that no contempt of court notice has been issued now when the whole country was facing blackmailing. He said the PTI had urged the court to take notice when audio of Imran Khan and her spouse was released. Also, he said, a judge had no option but to tender apology on the audio of Saqib Nisar.
It is unfortunate that law was treating Imran Khan differently comparing with other political leaders.
He warned that the system would come to a halt if political parties started issuing instructions to Chief Justice. He criticised Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) government for confronting the judiciary, saying that it was targeting the judiciary by all means.
He said 77 party workers were already under policy custody while another 81 workers have surrendered in Rawalpindi on Friday.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023