Constitution, Parliament undermined to pass FATF bills: Bilawal

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has asserted that the country and the Constitution needed to be liberated from the current oppressive regime.

“In the current government’s ‘Riyasat-e-Madina’, one is not allowed to comment, tweet or print books,” Bilawal said while addressing an All Parties Conference (APC) organised by Pakistan Bar Council (PBC) in Islamabad.

The PPP Chairman further said that any voice against the current regime was being suppressed. “Those who were selected in the past are now forced to raise slogans of the revolution,” he remarked.

Bilawal Bhutto lamented that National Assembly speaker Asad Qaiser did not recount votes, during the legislative process, despite repeated calls from the opposition parties to do so. In this regard, he questioned how long they can tolerate the ‘rubber-stamp’ Parliament.

He also said that the Constitution and the Parliament were undermined to forcibly pass bills crucial to the requirements laid out by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) for Pakistan to exit its grey list.

“Both 18th Amendment and National Finance Commission (NFC) Awards are under threat and a political struggle is needed to protect these initiatives,” Bilawal added.

Referring to the recent floods, he said that the recent floods have affected the country severely and dealt heavy damage to the crops. “However, not a single person is raising voice in this regard,” he claimed.

“When the floods hit the country in 2011, Watan Card was launched by the PPP government to compensate the affectees,” Bilawal said, adding that today no one was ready to support the affected people.

PML-N President Shehbaz Sharif

On the occasion, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif has asserted that today Pakistani media was being suppressed to an unprecedented level.

“Media workers have sacrificed their lives and struggled to get their freedom,” he added. Commenting on the judiciary, Shehbaz Sharif said that he respects the judges but some of them even gave dictators the right to amend the Constitution.

“This is something that cannot be erased from history. Now, we have to take a lesson from history and move forward,” he said, adding that there were many honourable judges but at the same time, there were also people like Arshad Malik.

Referring to the premier’s speech in the joint session of the Parliament, the PML-N president said, “We have a prime minister that doesn’t know that every area of the country is sacred,”

Prime Minister Imran Khan earlier said that it looks like the Sharifs were born in Buckingham Palace and not Gawalmandi. Shehbaz said that the prime minister made a speech that “no one thought he would” make.