ISLAMABAD: State Minister for Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage Aurangzeb has sa
id that all cons
titutional ins
titutions must function within cons
titutional limits in a dignified manner without any interference.
Speaking in the National Assembly on Tuesday, the minister sa
id that the Cons
titution of Pakistan had three pillars and the parliament was one of them, adding that all the ins
titutions owed their existence to the Cons
titution, which was choreographed by the parliament.
She sa
id that the debate initiated by Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi in the National Assembly yesterday had strengthened Pakistan legally and cons
titutionally and even the opposition leader had observed that this debate should have been unleashed long ago.
Marriyum sa
id that the judiciary commanded respect because it was cu
stodian o
f the law and the Cons
titution and a protector and guarantor o
f the dignity and honour o
f the citizens. She sa
id that the prestige and honour o
f the court was not vitiated by uttering of one sentence by somebody.
She sa
id that giving the epithet of godfather and Sicilian mafia to an elected prime minister was a negation o
f the mandate o
f the people. An elected prime minister was sent home with one stoke o
f the pen but a person who consigned the Cons
titution to the waste paper basket was not arraigned in the court, she added.
Marriyum sa
id that Nawaz Sharif was
not only a name but an ideology and a passion that had penetrated in the hearts o
f the masses from Peshawar to Karachi. She sa
id that Nawaz Sharif represented an ideology for the sanctity of vote and voice o
f the people which could not be suppressed. She reiterated that the flag o
f the sanctity of vote would keep flying against all odds.
The minister observed that they first sent the prime minister home and were now trying to ferret out incriminating evidence. She sa
id that Nawaz had raised voice for the sanctity of vote and connected the people of Pakistan with each other. He was a road-map for the revival o
f the public opinion and that was the reason he was followed by millions of people where ever he went and were raising slogans of non-acceptance o
f the verdict for his disqualification, she added.
She sa
id that Nawaz had morphed into voice o
f the people which should be heard attentively. She sa
id that the former prime minister had launched a movement for the restoration o
f the judiciary and now was running a campaign for restoration of justice.
The minister sa
id that everyone, including the state ins
titutions, had committed mistakes, adding that it should also be accepted that the registration of a case for the theft of buffalo was a mistake; expressing elation over the execution of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was also a mistake; taking oath from a dictator under the doctrine of necessity, PCO and LFO were also a mistake and a sin. She sa
id that everybody knew the path that the country had traversed during the last 70 years and it was the right moment to ponder whether the next 70 years were also to be spent mourning over the past mistakes and throwing the Cons
titution into the waste paper basket? She observed that there was an imperative need to use their collective wisdom to set a right direction for the country.
She sa
id that democracy was not the name of a product or the by-election in Lodhran, but it was a process and a political behavior. She sa
id that democracy entailed freedom of expression and the ins
titutions showing subservience to the law and Cons
titution.
Published in Daily Times, February 21st 2018.