‘Coups done in 30 seconds should be undone in just as much time’ | The Express Tribune

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairperson Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said on Wednesday that if a “coup” can be pulled off in 30 seconds, it should also be undone in about the same time.

“Justice delayed is justice denied,” tweeted Bilawal as the hearing on the April 3 National Assembly fiasco continued for a third consecutive day in the Supreme Court.

 

Lamenting the no-confidence motion filed by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s against its own deputy speaker in the Punjab Assembly, Bilawal said that Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari was locked out of the assembly on the day of voting for the slot of the provincial chief minister.

The PPP leader stated that none of interim prime minister Imran Khan’s “desperate measures” could now save him as his government was gone.

“Selected raj is over. The people are watching, history will record, how he was brought in undemocratically and on his way out he set the constitution on fire,” Bilawal stated.

 

Earlier in the day it was reported that a history of sorts was made in the Punjab Assembly today after it received two no-trust motions in a single day, one submitted by the joint opposition against Speaker Chaudhry Pervez Elahi and the other by the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) against its own Deputy Speaker Sardar Dost Muhammad Mazari.

Read Opposition power after treasury shocker

However, the government refused to accept the no-confidence resolution against the speaker. 

SC hearing

During today’s proceedings, Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial observed that the apex court wanted to know more about the alleged conspiracy against Prime Minister Imran Khan before issuing its decision in the sou motu case against the ruling issued by the deputy speaker that dismissed the no-confidence motion against Imran on the pretext of a foreign conspiracy.

During the hearing of the case today, Justice Bandial said, “We want to see what the conspiracy was that was used to dismiss the motion.”

He added that the court would also examine whether the speaker had the authority to deviate from the agenda of the house and rely on some other “facts”.

Whether there was such material present…when did the meeting of the National Security Committee take place,” Justice Bandial went on to ask and said the PTI lawyer, Babar Awan, also needed to tell the court if a constitutional process could be sidelined. An allegation was made in the case, he said, adding that the court wanted to focus on “facts” in the case as the ruling was an action by the speaker.

Awan said a message regarding a meeting, which was attended by the deputy head of the mission, defence attache and three other diplomats, arrived in Pakistan on March 7. “Was this information coded as you used the term ‘decipher’,” the SC asked. Awan explained that the Foreign Office examined the memo and then a meeting was called that was not attended by the foreign secretary due to unavailability.