Minister of State for Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage Marriyum Aurangzeb talking to the media outside the Supreme Court after the announcement of the verdict on the petition seeking disqualification of Imran Khan and Jahangir Tareen said that there could not be two different scales in law and the decision of SC represented a negation of the standard and principle set in the Panama case.
She said that the verdict was a corroboration of the narrative that Nawaz Sharif expounded on GT Road after his disqualification and was not surprising for the PML (N).
She said that the double standard was resorted to because they had to disqualify an elected Prime Minister who even today was more popular at the grassroots level than in 2013, while on the other hand was a person who had been abusing the ECP, court and the constitution and even today was hurling invectives at NAB. The minister said that it had always been the PML (N) stance that political leader should come and go through votes.
She said that on the one hand an elected Prime Minister was disqualified on the basis of ‘Iqama’ for not receiving the salary and on the other hand a person was told that if he had an offshore company which was not declared, it did not matter much.
Marriyum said that in this case a thief and dacoit had been sacrificed to save the King. She said today it had been established that Jahangir Tareen was a thief and a plunderer and after his disqualification the ATM that funded the sit-in had been closed.
The minister observed that Imran Khan was running the party with foreign funding from foreigners which he used for financing the sit-ins and was trying to obstruct development on their dictates. She said that the verdict on that had yet to come and the matter had been referred to the ECP for investigation and giving a verdict on it. She said that the decision by ECP in that case would disqualify entire PTI.
The minister said that they had accepted the SC verdict and the appearance of the former Prime Minister in the NAB court twice a day was a sequel to that.
Referring to SC decision on Hudabiya she said that it had a background, it was instituted by NAB and went through different courts but after nine year long scrutiny by the dictator nothing came out of it. She maintained that the SC verdict had to be the one that was given today. It was already an open and shut case, she added. She said that SC had delivered its verdict on Hudabiya and those perched on the container were still busy in politics of abuses adding that their politics of falsehood would soon come to an end.
Marriyum said that the continuation of democracy was imperative for strengthening the system and the state institutions.
She said that load shedding and terrorism could only be eliminated through the power of the vote and a vibrant and tensile parliament was indispensable for making the country strong.
Earlier speaking at the concluding ceremony of the National Management Development Course, the minister reiterated that record developments had taken place in the country during the democratic regimes as was amply clear from the progress made during the last four years.
She said that the continuation of the democratic process was imperative for strengthening the system and state institutions. The minister said that it was possible to deal with terrorism and load-shedding with the power of the vote. She said that strong parliament would make the country strong.
Referring to the management course Marriyum said that PIPs had contributed a lot in enhancing contacts between the parliament and the provincial institutions. The minister suggested that PIPs should also organize courses on the supremacy of the parliament and the constitution as such courses and training promoted liaison among the provincial assemblies and the parliament.
She observed that the performance of PIPs during the last four years had been very outstanding adding that the institute had played a significant role in the capacity building of the parliamentarians and the staff of the parliament.
She said that the continuation of democracy added to the performance and prestige of the institutions besides strengthening the system. Marriyum observed that night raids had been conducted on democracy repeatedly.
The minister said that parliament was an independent entity and a great forum for training and all people must have access to it. The minister also awarded certificates to the participants of the course.

Source: APP