Bilawal urges Karachi lawyers to support Opposition movement for rule of law

KARACHI: PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday said that the parliament shall continue to remain ineffective, and the freedom of media in a true sense would be a dream until full respect and implementation of the Constitutional rights are ensured, inviting lawyers to support the Opposition in this struggle.

Addressing the Karachi Bar Association, the PPP chairman said the lawyers’ movement that had been launched was not against judges or former chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, rather it aimed at ensuring the “rule of law".

“It is imperative for the lawyers’ fraternity that they continue to support democratic forces in their struggle to ensure the ‘rule of law’ in letter and spirit, and for the respect and implementation of the Constitution in Pakistan,” he stated, asking the lawyers to convey a message to all that an independent judiciary that would protect the human rights and democracy and defy the detention or imprisonment of the political workers and their leadership is need of the hour.

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“I want to solve the problems of the legal community, but the legal fraternity also has to support our struggle for the rights of the people," he said.

Bilawal said that people’s money has to be handed back to the Sindh government so that the same should be spent on the welfare and progress of the people of the province.

“PPP has joined hands with lawyers for the supremacy of the Constitution, democracy, and human rights, hence they should also support the democratic forces against this non-democratic and selected government and its facilitators," he said.

The PPP chairman said that he could not count the number of false cases against former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and former president Asif Ali Zardari, but the promising fact was that the lawyers always stood by the PPP at every hearing.

Today, when the PPP is in action for the people’s rights, the role of the lawyers’ fraternity is inevitable, he said.

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He asked the lawyers to participate in Pakistan Democratic Movement's public meetings in large numbers to prove that country's legal fraternity stood with democracy and masses.

Bilawal said: "We have been forced to raise the issues of the people on the streets because these issues are not allowed to be discussed in the parliament."

"Opposition leaders are not allowed to speak. Shahbaz Sharif has been sent to jail, while Khursheed Shah is still in jail," he said.

He warned that if the future of genuine political activists is destroyed then it would result in their replacement by non-democratic and non-political people.

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When we tell the incumbent prime minister that you are "selected, this system is hybrid, and you are robbing us of our democracy and human rights", in response, the "selected" premier says that "he is democracy", Bilawal said.

The PPP chairman said that only because of the most "incompetent PM ever" in the history, the masses are suffering and have become the victims of his "arrogance, ineligibility, ruthless economic disorders, and mega-corruption scams".