MARDAN: Former prime minister and PPP leader Raja Pervez Ashraf on Saturday said military courts were established under extraordinary circumstances and their tenure should be extended only if the law and order situation was the same.

He was talking to reporters after offering condolences to PPP leader Haji Khanzada Khan over the death of his brother-in-law in Par Hoti area here.

The PPP leader said his party believed in the supremacy of parliament and therefore, it had been working for it since its creation.

Ex-PM says military courts were established under extraordinary circumstances

He said if parliament had no supremacy and dignity, there would be no respect for any government institution in the country.

Mr. Ashraf said the PPP had decided that both its chairman and co-chairman would contest the by-polls to be part of the current National Assembly to promote constructive and positive politics in the country.

He said the country needed the presence of senior politicians in parliament under the current circumstances.

“Our party chairman (Bilawal Bhutto Zardari) has presented four demands before the PML-N (federal) government. We will build more pressure on it to meet them,” he said.

The PPP leader said the party was going to launch a campaign from Hyderabad on Jan 5. He said his party wanted to fight the ruling PML-N in political ways.

Mr. Ashraf welcomed PTI chief Imran Khan’s demand for the formation of an alliance against the federal government over the Panama Leaks issue and said the Nawaz Sharif government was using delay tactics to resolve the issue.

He said the PML-N leadership was very clever as it wasted nine to 10 months over the formulation of terms of reference for Panama Leaks probe.

The PPP leader, however, said the federal government could no more delay the Panama Leaks investigation as the people had become very vigilant and alert.

He asked the PML-N leadership to take ‘serious’ steps to resolve the issue.

Mr. Ashraf said the people looked to the new Supreme Court chief justice for early resolution of the Panama Leaks issue.

Published in Dawn, January 1st, 2017