President Dr. Arif Alvi said that all institutions of the country were respectable to him and that he did not believe in making the state institutions controversial.

“I have repeatedly told politicians to not bring the military under discussion,” the president said while speaking to the journalists in Lahore.

The president’s statements come after PTI leader, Shahbaz Gill, was arrested on Tuesday following remarks deemed ‘seditious’ on a private TV channel.

“It was the armed forces’ job to win the battle against terrorism,” President Alvi said and added that politicians should avoid making the institution controversial and that the armed forces had the responsibility of the country’s security.

He said that there was a need to initiate a consultative process to bring all stakeholders to the table to listen to each other.

“The constitutional role of the president does not allow me officially to reach out to the stakeholders,” President Alvi added.

He said that he kept telling all the stakeholders that things were not getting better and that the politicians needed to sit at a table.

“If I don’t see the situation getting better, I will ask them to sit at the table. As the president, I can only ask, not order,” Alvi noted.

Appointments of army chief and judges

Referring to the appointment of the chief of army staff and the judges, he said that the chief justice of the apex court had said that appointment should be standardized.

“There are talks of the appointment of the army chief and judges. For the judiciary, the chief justice has stated that there should be a standard; I agree with him,” the president said.

PTI prohibited funding case

Speaking regarding the PTI prohibited funding case, the president said that his party was caught in the foreign funding case as they kept records of their accounts.

“Under United States laws, if a party wants to collect funds, it has to establish a company,” the president explained.

The president said that he has signed 85 summaries sent by the prime minister and had only returned two of them relating to EVM and voting rights of overseas Pakistanis.

“Since, I worked on both these matters previously, I was convinced against reversing their use in the elections,” they said.