Bilawal urges ISPR, judiciary to take notice of PTI’s campaign

By Muhammad JuniadPublished On 06 Jan 2023

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has urged the military’s media wing and the judiciary to take notice of PTI’s social media campaign which, he said, was aimed at provoking the institutions and ending their neutrality.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Sunday, Bilawal also announced that the PPP would file a petition before the Supreme Court of Pakistan against the refusal of the National Assembly Speaker to summon the NA session within 14 days after the requisition was submitted by the opposition.

The opposition had submitted the requisition on March 8, requiring the speaker to summon the session before March 22, but Speaker Asad Qaiser — citing various reasons has called the NA session on March 25, a date that falls beyond the 14-day period stipulated in Article 54.

Bilawal said the speaker has violated the constitution by not summoning the session within 14 days. He also accused Prime Minister Imran Khan of trying to evade the no-confidence motion against him.

Bilawal said that the prime minister and his social media team have launched a propaganda and “character assignation” campaign to make sure that institutions no longer remain neutral.

“Whether is it done by provocation or by creating constitutional crisis … Imran Khan believes that if he is not allowed to play he would not allow anyone to play,” he said.

He said all the institutions should be urged to work within their legal and constitutional domains. “But at the same time, it is also our responsibility that where under a conspiracy and organized effort the prime minister…[and] his social media target an institution to provoke it, we also oppose it.”

He said the prime minister dubbed the neutral as an “animal” at a public rally and has not apologized to this nation and country so far. “We demand a clarification on this,” he said.

Prime Minister Imran Khan at one of his public rallies had said that only animals could be neutral.

Bilawal said, “We demand that the ISPR [Inter-Services Public Relations, the media wing of the army] and the judiciary take notice of the campaign launched by Imran Khan’s MNAs and his social media team.”

“We won’t allow such propaganda to succeed. We want everyone to work within their constitutional limits and this government wants a constitutional crisis. Unlike in the past, we won’t allow this defeated person or anyone else to play with the destiny of this country.”

Daring Imran Khan to compete in the Parliament, Bilawal said that the PTI government has lost the majority support in the National Assembly.

Bilawal said that the PTI has no political future because it has lost several by-elections and local bodies polls during its nearly four-year rule.

He also accused Imran Khan of ruining the country’s economy and leaving people penniless.