KARACHI, April 25: The Pakistan People’s Party has claimed that during the hearing one of the most important constitutional petitions in the country the continuance of the government’s campaign for the presidential referendum is tantamount to contempt of court, and reiterated its appeal to the Supreme Court to take suo-motu notice.
The party spokesman, Munawwar Suhrawardi, said in a statement on Thursday that soon after the announcement of the referendum almost all major political parties, all bar associations, former judges and intellectuals of the country had termed the referendum a violation of the 1973 constitution as there was no mention of referendum in article 48 of the constitution.
He said: “The PPP and other national democratic forces of the country has pointed out that the National Reconstruction Bureau, instead of preparing a development package for the nation, has been working on a plot to bring about a weak democracy in the future, and it has chalked out a plan to prolong the tenure of office of President Pervez Musharraf given him by the Supreme Court by acquiring for him presidency through the doctrine of necessity.”
He claimed that the government had failed to achieve progress in any field, but Gen Musharraf had been wrongly interpreting the 1973’s constitution by terming the referendum a national issue.
The People’s Students Federation Sindh, has warned leaders of political parties supporting the referendum, including Imran Khan, Sardar Farooq Leghari, Prof Tahirul Qadiri and government officials that if they tried to deliver speech in favour of the referendum in any university and educational institution in Sindh, the student community would “Gherao” them.
At a press conference, the organization’s President, Dr Arshad Mughal, condemned the allegedly insulting attitude of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf at Karachi University and demanded withdrawal of false cases instituted against students of PSF and of the IJT for the incident.
