What Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) thinks before it speaks and acts? This is a question circulating among public after the party’s founding chairman Imran Khan has inked a letter to the Chief Justice of Pakistan and also has nominated his stalwart Sher Afzal Marwat for the slot of Chairman Public accounts Committee.
The former Prime Minister Imran Khan from jail penned this to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faiz Isa two days earlier (Saturday) seeking the apex court’s “meaningful intervention” over a number of matters which PTI thinks important with regard to the rule of law and supremacy of the Constitution of Pakistan.
This is the second letter in number which the PTI’s founding Chairman has written. The earlier letter was addressed to the global money lender -IMF- suggesting to keep in view political instability in Pakistan resulting from general elections 2024 before making any deal with Pakistan over financial matters or loans.
Now the second letter is addressed to the chief of the apex court suggesting that if the preceding situation remains prevailed it would be lethal to any civilized norms and is comprising the independence of judiciary. This letter states that the rule of law and the Constitution’s supremacy has fallen to lower levels and is resulting into the law of the jungle and also is leading toward the doctrine of might is right in Pakistan.
The PTI’s Information Secretary Raoof Hasan along with other leaders of his party, earlier addressing a press conference disclosed that Mr. Khan has written a seven-point letter to the Supreme Court’s Chief. One paragraph of this letter addressed to Mr. Justice Faiz Isa reads as “As, what I believe to be the majority of our populace, faces the wrath of the state, now is the time for you to prove whether your declared belief in the principles and values espoused by Pakistan’s founding fathers, and your proclamation of the supremacy of the constitution, are for real or were mere hollow rhetoric.” Meanwhile PTI’s information Secretary also demanded that the CJP should fulfill his constitutional and legal responsibilities otherwise he did not have the right to remain in the office and should relinquish his position instantly.
The other points of the letter include Toshakhana case against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif over purchasing a luxury car and in which the NAB prosecutors have proposed to the Accountability Court to exonerate Nawaz in an open and shut case. Torture and victimization of Bahawalnagar police by armed forces, letter of the six judges of Islamabad High Court to the Supreme Judicial Council, and PTI’s detainees of May 9 violence were also the subject of this letter. Mr. Khan through this letter has urged the Chief Justice of the SC that the lines drawn by the Constitution of Pakistan between the various pillars of the State were getting blurred into non-existence, and this has to be stopped before it is too late.
Last and not the least was in this letter the CJP in view of the IHC judges’ letter must take unified and decisive action to secure its independence and to hold accountable those who consistently undermine judicial system by use of force or the threat of use of force. Meanwhile PTI’s chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan has announced that PTI has nominates Sher Afzal Marwat as the Chairman of Public Accounts Committee. However, in public opinion the PTI should have well thought before taking both of these actions. It is an established fact and in the public opinion too the disgraceful removal of a former judge of the IHC Shaukat Sidiqi was managed during the time when Imran Khan was the Prime Minister of Pakistan. they opined as well that who initiated a disgraceful reference against the current Chief Justice of Pakistan whom this letter is addressed?
They questioned that why it was not kept in mind before writing this letter that how justice was comprised during the time of two former Chiefs of the Supreme Court – Justice (Retd) Saqib Nisar and Justice (Retd) Umar Atta Bandial – particularly in case of the PMLN’s leadership? Equally important was to keep in mind how the then PTI’s Interior Advisor Shehzad Akbar utilized the NAB in victimizing the former three times Prime Minister of Pakistan should have remembered before penning this letter to the CJP. Who stopped the police from registering an FIR of Mrs. Isa in which she nominated the former Director General of the ISI Lt. General (Retd) Faiz Hameed and others including PTI’s Shehzad Akbar?
People are surprised over this letter stating as well that how it looks suggesting the independence of judiciary to Mr. Justice Faiz Isa who never bowed down before the military and judicial establishment of that time when Mr. Khan himself was the Prime Minister? With regard to nominating Sher Afzal Marwat as the head of Public Accounts Committee, it looks as Mr. Marwat who is nobody to others in PTI is everybody to Mr. Khan.
Equally important to note is that Sher Afzal Marwat recently passed the most controversial statement alleging Saudi Arabia as partner of the US in dislodging PTI’s government. This statement was given right at the time when Saudi Foreign Minister with a high-powered business delegation few days earlier was present in Pakistan.
Following this irresponsible statement even PTI distanced itself from Marwat stating that it was his personal opinion. Now same Mr. Marwat has been nominated for such an important committee as chairman. Meanwhile the public is again surprised over this act of the PTI and concerns that what PTI thinks before doing an action. Does this party have no other choice such as the former National Assembly Speaker? However, the analysts believe that the Supreme Court will not take seriously this letter as the SC is already hearing petitions over some issues pointed out in this letter such as of the IHC judges’ matter. They are of the opinion that such steps of the PTI will further fuel confrontation with the establishment.
(Senior journalist Rana Kashif has authored this article)
