ISLAMABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Tuesday, advising the politicians to let sense prevail, expressed the hope that the ongoing talks between the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and the ruling coalition would bring in some positive outcome.
The president, in an interview with a private television channel, said there was a trust deficit among the politicians and urged them to adopt the characteristic of forgiveness to improve the situation.
He said if the politicians created mutual understanding and the judiciary remained steadfast, no one could breach the Constitution. He said it were the politicians who mobilized the masses to protect the Constitution.
Calling it a “criminal enticement”, the president discouraged the practice of paralysing the Constitution for the sake of power.
Coming to his social works, the president said unfortunately around 32 percent or 27 million children were out of school in Pakistan against just one percent in India and Bangladesh, which was a major crisis.
Regarding computing and artificial intelligence, he said Pakistan had not yet joined that bandwagon and called for accelerated efforts to make an impact.
He said following an interaction, the Ulema had also expressed willingness to provide the spaces at mosques for teaching the children as an out-of-the-box solution to deal with the crisis of out-of-school children.
About the breast cancer campaign pushed by First Lady Samina Alvi, the president said the frequent, focused and short messaging could make an impact and exemplified Pakistan’s success during the COVID-19 pandemic achieved by societal cooperation and institutional collaboration.
To a question, the president said the powers of the 58 (2B) should not rest with the president as the Parliament was elected by the people.
He told the interviewer that out of 270 bills received, he had returned seven to eight of them for having reservations over them, including those related to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), overseas voting and others.
He said instead of handling the politicisation of NAB, one should not demolish its whole structure.
The president said he had been calling for a long to settle the dispute of elections with a two to three months difference, as the polls would obviously have to be conducted.
He said the Constitution was supreme and there was no room for indulging in the debate as to who was more powerful of the Parliament or court. However, he said, the Constitution could not be sidetracked by any means.
Defending the use of an electronic voting machine, President Alvi said the countries dealing with the issues of rigging had been using it as Pakistan also faced disputes over poll-related rigging after every election.
Rubbishing the notions of toeing any party’s policy, the president said he always made his own mind on certain matters including the bills he had returned. However, he said he had consulted with PTI chief Imran Khan regarding the appointment of new army chief, with a view to evolve consensus.
To a question about the judiciary, President Alvi said the judges could have some differences on certain matters, their priorities should not change as the people have pinned hopes at them.
