Abbasi criticises govt for trying to amend constitution through ordinance

Former premier Shahid Khaqan Abbasi criticised on Tuesday the government for trying to amend the constitution through an ordinance.

On February 6, President Arif Alvi signed an ordinance aimed at conducting Senate elections through “open” and “identifiable” balloting.

The Elections (Amendment) Ordinance, 2021 allows the Election Commission of Pakistan to show the ballot cast by any lawmaker to the heads of the party on their request.

"[You] see that even the doors of the courts are closed," Abbasi told reporters outside an Islamabad court. "Count the police commandos here, a hundred personnel are outside and another hundred are inside."

He said even the courts were unsafe today, while the whole world was aware of their verdicts. "And if we say the country is running, then it would be a great injustice."

The incumbent rulers neither care about the law, nor have they developed the country, according to the former premier.

"The government wants to change the constitution of the country through an ordinance and there is no one to question it," he said.

"The DG ISPR has told us that the army has nothing to do with politics but who is responsible for what is happening in the country today," Abbasi questioned.

"The election that was stolen in 2018, and the difficulties the country and its people are facing today, whose responsibility is it?"

The opposition is only saying that the country won't run as long as its system isn't run according to the constitution, he said.

"This is not a government elected by the people," the ex-premier said. "We have not come to just topple the government but to change the system of the country."

He said what is happening in the country it happens when the government "becomes shameless and doesn't represent the masses".