LAHORE: A PPP minister from Sindh hints at launching a public movement if the government attempts to remove Supreme Court judge Justice Qazi Faez Isa through the reference to the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC).

Saeed Ghani also doesn’t rule out a meeting between estranged political leaders Asif Ali Zardari and Nawaz Sharif.

“Justice Qazi Faez Isa is a judge who has built his reputation through his decisions and following the code of conduct and not by making observations, through TV tickers and playing with public sentiments. If people could take a stand for [former CJP] Justice Iftikhar, then why not for Justice Isa who is hundred times better than Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry,” he said.

He was responding to a query about the “good judge and bad judge” public discourse during a media talk at the residence of Punjab PPP vice-president Aslam Gill where he went to condole the death of Gill’s brother on Sunday.

Mr Ghani said only an inept and incompetent government could think of acting against a judge like Justice Faez Isa.

He told a questioner that closing of ranks by PPP co-chairman Asif Zardari and PML-N leader Nawaz Sharif would not be surprising after a meeting between chairman Bilawal Bhutto and Maryam Nawaz. The PPP and PML-N despite being two different entities were working in the same direction, he said.

Answering a question about Bilawal Bhutto’s support for Fata MNAs Ali Wazir and Mohsin Dawar, he said the PPP chairman is leading the opposition and is talking on the issues others would be afraid of. He said that despite all odds the PPP and its leadership would continue talking on the issues damaging the economy and hurting the international image of the country.

The Sindh minister rejected the notion that there was some public demand for bifurcation of Sindh and claimed that the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM-P) always attempted to overcome their [internal] political crisis by dividing the masses through the demand for a separate province.

He said the Constitution had stated the procedure for formation of new provinces under which a resolution had to be passed by the relevant provincial assembly for the bifurcation of the province.

He dared the MQM that if it had the courage it should table a resolution in the Sindh Assembly for a separate province.

He said the people of Karachi were no more afraid of the MQM and that the opposition was weakening in Sindh as was evident from the various by-poll results in which the PPP was gaining more and more votes.

Published in Dawn, June 3rd, 2019