LAHORE: The PPP believes that the special court verdict in Gen Musharraf case will help strengthen democracy and give respect to vote.

“Though legal niceties of the special court verdict in Nov 3, 2007, Emergency Plus imposed by former army dictator Gen Musharraf could be explained by law experts, what we as students of political science could say is that the decision will grant respect to vote and further strengthen the democratic project,” Punjab PPP General Secretary Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmed said at a press conference here on Tuesday.

Flanked by Aslam Gill, Hassan Murtaza and Malik Usman, he said party’s legal team was examining the army chief’s extension case verdict for a formal position of the party and taking future line of action on the issue.

“However, what we believe is that the Supreme Court verdict on the army chief’s extension highlighted a constitutional issue and wasn’t against anyone. And that we don’t think that the incumbent government is interested in making law on the army chief’s tenure. Had it been sincere with the extension the prime minister won’t have issued the notification on a writing-pad of the PM Office.”

He said that after bails of Nawaz Sharif and Maryam Nawaz, there was no logic to rob Asif Ali Zardari and Feryal Talpur of the right to bail. Saying the recent court verdicts were restoring trust of the masses in the judiciary, he hoped that hearing of cases against Zardari would also be transferred back to Sindh from Islamabad. He said the party absolutely rejected the recent Indian citizenship law.

He said party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari would hold a public meeting at Liaquat Bagh, Rawalpindi, on Dec 27 to give a message to the world and put the question that why prominent leaders had been murdered in the garrison town.

JI: Jamaat-i-Islami Emir Senator Sirajul Haq said on Tuesday the special court ruling in Parvez Musharraf high treason case will ensure the supremacy of the Constitution and strengthen democracy in Pakistan.

“Indeed it is great decision in 72-year history of the country. The verdict will have far reaching impact on the future politics of Pakistan,” said the JI chief in a statement issued from Mansoora, adding the verdict will strengthen the people’s trust on the country’s judicial system.

Since the special court announced death sentence to the former military ruler finding him guilty of high treason, the JI chief demanded the government make arrangements to bring the former dictator back to Pakistan. He also called for holding accountable those who had allowed Pervez Musharraf to go abroad. He said crimes of Musharraf were countless and one of the biggest was that he threw the country in an endless war on American pressure.

The former dictator, he said, destroyed the democracy and made attack on ideology of the country. He warned the PTI government against taking any step to save the skin of Pervez Musharraf, saying Imran Khan’s government will further lose its credibility if it tried to defend the former ruler.

JI Naib Emir Liaqat Baloch also demanded that the government immediately take measures to ensure presence of Pervez Musharraf in the country. In a statement, he said the judiciary earned more respect in the eyes of the public and now it was responsibility of the parliament to take step for the supremacy of the constitution and protection of democracy in the country.

Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2019