Court verdict stripping PTI of bat symbol 'resurrected dead party': Bilawal

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Friday that a defunct political party was resurrected through a court decision that stripped the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) of its electoral symbol (bat), suggesting that the judiciary was responsible for the current crises.

“No one sitting in this House is responsible for the current crisis in the country. Only the court was and is the reason for the crisis,” said the PPP chairman.

Addressing the National Assembly in today’s session, Bilawal insisted that the judiciary is constantly “interfering” in Pakistan’s politics.

“The history of judiciary is before everyone,” the young politico said, adding that his party had to fight for justice on behalf of its martyred leaders — Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto.

He added that the PPP founder did not get a fair trial from the judiciary, while lamenting the delay in justice for common citizens. It was this year, he added, that his grandfather received justice posthumously.

Commenting on PTI’s bat symbol case, Bilawal said it was initially a result of the party’s “rigged” intra-party elections, according to the court. He insisted that the verdict on the bat symbol was not issued by him or the government.

“This verdict resurrected a dead political party after which, it started mobilising,” he said, adding that the decision had political implications and benefitted the PTI at the last minute — closer to February 8 general polls.

The Supreme Court had, ahead of elections, stripped the PTI of its electoral symbol 'bat’.

“They have handed out the verdict and seats [to PTI] like candy,” he said, adding that the court issued a political decision that the party did not even seek.

“They did not even ask for it and the law and Constitution did not even permit it.”

Bilawal, taking a jibe at the judiciary’s role in the country, said that the institution is so capable that it cannot just run the courts but also build dams.

In his speech at the Parliament, during which the opposition protested by making noise, the PPP politician lamented about the rise of politics of hatred in the country. “The political division today did not exist earlier.”

Pointing towards the political crisis in Bangladesh, Bilawal said Pakistanis are carefully watching the unfolding situation in the wake of the anti-government protest that triggered its prime minister Sheikh Hasina to resign.

He insisted that it is crucial for the state to now pay attention to the issues of the people who are experiencing an economic crisis.