Pakistan: PTI leader Ali Zafar says Imran Khan-led govt was ousted 'constitutionally'

In his remarks, PTI Senator Zafar said that the current Shehbaz Sharif-led government can be overthrown at any time as the PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council's lawmakers will soon be in majority in the upper and lower house of the Parliament.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf's (PTI) Senate leader Barrister Ali Zafar said the previous Imran Khan-led government was ousted "constitutionally," Geo News reported. He made the remarks during the Geo News programme 'Capital Talk', opposing the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur, who had announced "storming Islamabad to overthrow the government in Centre", calling it 'unconstitutional'.

"There are several constitutional ways of toppling the government and our government, too, was removed constitutionally after a vote of no-confidence," Ali Zafar said, according to Geo News, adding that he considers such mechanisms 'legal'. Zafar added that the current Shehbaz Sharif-led government can be overthrown at any time as the PTI-backed Sunni Ittehad Council's lawmakers will soon be in majority in the upper and lower house of the Parliament.

Significantly, the PTI government was removed through a no-confidence motion moved by the then-Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance, according to a Geo News report. He also questioned the scope of criticising the judiciary in the Constitution. Asked about PTI's use of strong language against Chief Justice Qazi Faez Isa on social media platform X, Zafar said that the judiciary's decisions can be criticised, however, the judge's character under the Constitution cannot be criticised.

On May 1, PTI leader Raoof Hasan stressed that the Chief Justice of Pakistan should disassociate himself from the bench hearing case related to a letter by six Islamabad High Court judges, alleging he could not do justice in the matter. He said that CJP Isa is on one side while the entire judiciary is on the other. The PTI has expressed displeasure over the conduct of Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa during the Supreme Court proceedings on the issue of meddling by intelligence agencies in judicial affairs, Dawn reported.

Addressing a press conference, Raoof Hasan reiterated the demand of the party led by the incarcerated former Prime Minister of the country that a full court was hearing the matter on a daily basis. However, the CJP should disassociate himself from the bench. Raoof Hasan said meddling in the judicial affairs was a very serious issue but a "spectacle was staged in the apex court" the other day. He said six judges of the high court wrote a letter to the CJP to raise the meddling issue at the Supreme Judicial Council. However, he referred it to the executive and Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif was asked to form a commission to investigate it, according to Dawn report.

The PTI's central information secretary said that Shehbaz Sharif and operatives of intelligence agencies were among those implicated in the matter. He stressed that giving responsibility to an implicated person to form the commission and appoint its head to look into the matter was, in itself, 'a crime'. Hasan believed the practice could not be stopped if punitive actions were not taken against those meddling in judicial affairs. He said the CJP has said that there was no meddling in the judiciary. However, even the common man knew of this, Dawn reported.

He said that the letter written by judges and the high court's responses were nothing less than an 'indictment' and the chief justice should have proceeded with the matter according to the constitution. He accused the Chief Justice of Pakistan of adopting a different approach as all judges were on the same page but "he was fighting against the entire judiciary." (ANI)

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