By Imtiaz Hussain Abro.
LAHORE: Expressing dissatisfaction, both the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and the Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) have criticized the Supreme Court’s decision to grant relief to Imran Khan, the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), in the cipher case.
Political figures from both parties shared their discontent a day after the former PTI chairman was granted bail.
On Saturday, Malik Ahmad Khan, a senior PML-N leader, raised questions about how Imran Khan could be granted bail for violating the Official Secrets Act without a thorough investigation into the case.
Speaking to the media in Lahore, Khan remarked, “If someone has committed a crime, should they be spared without an investigation? Is it appropriate to blend legal and constitutional violations with fair play?”
He also questioned how a party could be assigned its electoral symbol if it was legally prohibited from participating in elections due to a failure to conduct intra-party elections as mandated by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
On Friday evening, the ECP revoked PTI’s ‘bat’ symbol, declaring its intra-party elections unlawful in a reserved verdict announced by a five-member ECP bench led by Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja. The PML-N leader emphasized that the ECP had raised objections to PTI’s intra-party elections, citing unanswered legitimate questions.
Referring to the SC verdict in the cipher case, PML-N’s Khan pointed out that the PTI founder had convened a brief cabinet meeting on the classified document and promptly recommended the dissolution of the assemblies based on it. He likened PTI’s actions to the constitutional violations committed by military dictators.
In a separate press conference in Karachi, PPP leader Sharjeel Inam Memon asserted that Pakistan had suffered an unbearable loss due to the cipher, and the country’s economy continues to suffer. Memon claimed that a hostile country had benefited from the cipher, citing how the Indian media highlighted the case.
Memon criticized leaders whose parties were initiated by a few individuals, citing Asif Zardari’s “Pakistan Khappay” slogan at Benazir Bhutto’s death as an example of statesmanship. He alleged that the PTI, in the 2018 elections, deprived people of their rights through the RTS system.
The PPP leader accused the PTI founder of spreading negativity among the youth through social media and questioned whether being a big party meant being exempt from the law. Memon appealed not to equate those who seek the country’s development with the PTI founder, emphasizing that assuming the former PM is innocent is a misguided notion.
He concluded by stating that if someone is receiving funding from India and Israel, they can never benefit the country, and the PPP advocates for a level playing field for everyone.
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