Supreme Court order ‘judicial coup’ against Balochistan government
By: Tariq Saeed Birmani
DERA GHAZI KHAN: Governor Latif Khosa on Saturday termed Supreme Court’s recent interim order a “judicial coup” against the writ of the Balochistan government and reiterated his party’s stance that dissolving a provincial government was a subject of the federal government not the judiciary.
He was addressing a press conference at the local circuit house soon after arriving here from Lahore.
The governor said the mandate of elected government of Balochistan should be respected as out of 62 members of the provincial assembly 60 were with Chief Minister Aslam Raisani.
Mr Khosa made a “humble request” to the chief justice of Pakistan to withdraw the order for stability of democracy, otherwise it would derail the system. He said the general election would be held on time while process for selection of interim prime minister would be initiated on March 18.
Elaborating, he said first of all it was the parliament’s prerogative to nominate interim prime minister. If the parliament failed to nominate the interim premier, then a parliamentary committee would given the task, which would select one name for the slot out of a list of aspirants presented jointly by the Treasury and Opposition benches.
He maintained that if these both forums couldn’t decide the name for the interim premier, then the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) would nominate the prime minister to hold transparent elections.
He said a summary was being prepared to waive off Zari Tarqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) loans in the flood-affected areas.
He said some 80,000 more applications for eligibility for Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) had been accepted and the applicants would soon start getting their monthly honorarium.
The governor said the federal government would build ‘Benazir Villages’ for the flood-hit homeless families. He said to save the people of the district from frequent hill torrents Wapda had been directed to evolve a fool-proof strategy by constructing drains to divert flash floods to the Indus.
The governor took notice of alleged over-billing of domestic power users of the district and directed Mepco to “do justice” with the consumers.
He said those who had received money to steal the 1990 election by forming Islami Jamhoori Ittehad (IJI) and the generals who had staged “the coup” were equal partners in the conspiracy.
The governor handed over Rs5 million medicines to the representatives of the flood-affected people, assuring them that the federal government would be with them till their complete rehabilitation.
Controversial district president of the PPP, Shibly Shab Khaiz and secretary general Behram Buzdar were conspicuous by their absence at the press conference. According to sources their absence was reflective of grouping in the party’s local organization.
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