PPP leader Aitzaz Ahsan has claimed that the government was afraid of “one prisoner” and called for an end to picking up lawmakers and people in the country.

“The government has to change its policy,” he said while appearing on News Insight with Amir Zia which was aired on Aaj News on Monday.

The veteran lawyer did not name the prisoner he was referring to, but in recent times developments related to incarcerated former prime minister Imran Khan have made headlines.

His decision about anti-government protests and the government’s decision to ban meetings in Adiala Jail, where Khan is serving his sentence, are some of the examples.

Since the February elections marred by rigging allegations, relations have soured between Islamabad and the top courts as rulings litigating results have backed the party of jailed ex-prime minister Khan.

The 72-year-old former cricket star had been barred from running and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party previously claimed the courts were used to sideline their hugely popular campaign.

Ahsan, who was part of the lawyers’ movement in 2006-07, demanded the government end “picking up” members of the National Assembly and senators. He described it as “violence” and added that the people in the federal capital and Punjab were not releasing the pain of people in Balochistan who have been for years making a demand to end “enforced disappearances.”

The PPP leader was on the news programme to give his opinion about the 26th Constitutional Amendment that the government narrowly passed constitutional amendments in the wee hours of Monday giving lawmakers more power to appoint top judges, who have issued a series of recent decisions favouring opposition chief Khan.

He started off by saying that the original draft of the bill was “horrifying” and hidden from the government. It was “painful” that special immunity was given to armed forces in the first draft, he added.

“It is a step forward in some respect,” Ahsan said about the amendments and added that one of the long-standing demands of lawyers was to change the CJP’s absolute right to summon anyone—suo motu notice under 184(3) of the Constitution.

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He clarified that there would be one Supreme Court. According to the PPP leader, the seniority principle in the chief justice of Pakistan’s appointment has a “bitter reality”.

When asked, Ahsan admitted that the government has conceded to the JUI-F by agreeing to form the constitutional bench instead of a separate court. But he added that a court could have more confused the matter.

He did not agree that there was any fear of protests.