PPP gives strike call across Sindh against SC judgment
KARACHI: The Pakistan People’s Party has called for a general strike and protest day on Friday across the Sindh province against the judgment of the Supreme Court for removing Justice (Retd.) Deedar Husain Shah from the post of NAB chairman.
This was announced by the party’s provincial general-secretary, Taj Haider, while speaking to reporters at his office on Thursday. Meanwhile, some PPP MPAs told a separate press conference that the party legislators would stage a demonstration outside the Sindh High Court to lodge their protest against, what they called, “politically motivated decision of the superior judiciary”.
Taj Haider, who is also a former senator, said the party would observe a strike across Sindh besides taking out rallies. He hoped that their coalition partners as well as other political parties would also support their strike call “against the interference of the judiciary in administrative affairs”.
Haider told the reporters that certain political parties, especially the PML-N, had allegedly been trying to drag the judiciary into politics. Meanwhile, the PPP’s senior leader, while talking to The News exclusively, said that the judiciary was being dragged into politics for the last three years.
Haider said that certain TV channels and newspapers over the last few days had been openly predicting that the government would be dismissed through a judicial intervention. He said that the “establishment and right-wing parties” were giving some “political colour” to the superior judiciary.
Haider said it was a dangerous thing that an impression was being created that the judiciary had a “political role”, and it was up to the judges to dispel the impression. To a question, Haider said their strike call should not be construed as a contempt of the court.
He said the PPP had already protested against the judicial murder of the party’s founder leader, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. If judges wanted to issue a contempt of court notice, they could do so against the whole of the Sindh province, Haider said.
The Sindh PPP leader believed that the SC’s judgment removing the NAB’s chairman had triggered “anger” against the judiciary in Sindh. Haider, who is also the provincial government’s spokesman, clarified that there would be no public holiday on Friday (today) in the Sindh province.
The Sindh PPP media cell’s spokesperson, MPA Sharjeel Memon, speaking at a press conference, said that the PPP MPAs would wear black armbands during the provincial assembly’s session on Friday (today).
Memon, flanked by MPAs Imdad Pitafi, Agha Taimur and Javed Shah Jillani, said that the legislators would take out a rally from the assembly building and march up to the Sindh High Court building to lodge their protest against the judgment of the SC. Memon said it was the constitutional right of the government to appoint heads of the institutions.
He said the government was not “interfering” in the judiciary’s affairs, therefore, “the judiciary should also respect the government’s prerogatives”. Memon said several cases had been pending before the judiciary and asked why the same were not being taken cognizance of by the judges.
He cited the Mehran Bank and the Hudabia Paper Mills cases and asked why the judiciary had not been taking notice of the Punjab government being run through a stay order, and no hearing into the stay order had taken place for a considerable length of time.
Source: The News
Date:3/11/2011
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