ISLAMABAD: Chairman Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has reaffirmed his commitment to completing the constitutional amendments, ahead of October 25 deadline.
While talking to reporters in Islamabad on Wednesday, he said ‘We need to assess the evidence first; after all, we have the authority to grant a presidential pardon.” He added that the PPP stands against the death penalty.
To a question, he said if the amendments are made before October 25, the matter can be settled peacefully.
He further said that the PPP would not abandon the matter concerning the constitutional court, vowing to see it through to completion. “We have already faced significant delays; our demands date back to 2006 and are part of our manifesto,” he added.
Bilawal also condemned the judiciary’s timing regarding certain actions, questioning why the timing of the ruling on reserved seats was not being analysed. He said that the judiciary’s four-page clarification issued on September 14, the day of a parliamentary session, raised some questions about the judicial timing.
He noted that the head of the constitutional court would serve a three-year term and voiced his opposition to the establishment of military courts, stressing that the justification for the federal constitutional court lies in the Supreme Court’s historical precedents.
Bilawal to another question said that the judiciary had affected the local government system under the pretext of this case, questioning whether unrest existed only in Karachi, as Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan also face similar situations.
He further slammed the political manoeuvring regarding the selection of the next Army Chief, saying that events on May 9 were bordering on insurrection. He noted that if constitutional amendments are not enacted, the resulting situation might spiral beyond anyone’s control. He mentioned that the 18th Amendment had previously blocked the path to martial law.
