Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari endorsed Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s demand for an inquiry into the protests of May 9, adding that the results should be accepted by all parties.
Speaking in the National Assembly on Monday, Bilawal said it was not possible to forget attacks on institutions and martyrs monuments.
He referred to Ali Amin Gandapur’s speech asking for an inquiry in May 9’s protest, adding that a judicial commission should bring facts to the surface.
However, he also said that all parties should agree to accept the commission’s findings.
Bilawal said that it was hard to ‘take our politics forward’ unless the May 9 issue was resolved. He called on PM Shehbaz Sharif to set up a commission led by Chief Justice Faez Isa.
“I endorse this […] if the PTI assures us that it will accept the decision of the judicial commission […] it is not possible that someone attacks our institutions, the martyr’s memorials and we forget it,” he said.
Violent protests had broken out across Pakistan on May 9 last year, minutes after Imran Khan was arrested from the Islamabad High Court.
The PPP chairman also mentioned the cipher case in the assembly, adding that leaking the confidential document could have put Pakistan’s cipher code at risk.
As Sunni Ittehad Council’s lawmakers burst into protest, Bilawal continued to mock them for not being able to handle criticism, even referring to them at one point as ‘cartoons’.
Bilawal also referred to the dissolution of the assembly just before the vote of no-confidence in 2022, adding that it amounted to a violation of the constitution. He added that violations of the constitution would have to be condemned from all sides.
Referring to the PTI’s antics, he turned to the opposition to ask ‘Who the hell are you to ask me about the constitution?’
However, as the clamour grew, Speaker Ayaz Sadiq assured the opposition that the offensive remarks would be expunged. At this Bilawal said that he should not have used the words he did and asked them to be expunged as well.
In response, PTI leader Asad Qaiser told the house that the cipher was a ‘reality’ and Imran Khan was sentenced in the case to keep him out of the election.
Qaiser added that a commission must be formed to investigate the cipher and demanded that the government should set it up immediately.
He added that a grade-19 officer had challenged the honour of Pakistan by threatening a diplomat.
Qaiser added that the members of his party who had made it to the house were beyond intimidation as they had braved all sorts of persecution after May 9.
He added that he had been asked to leave PTI, join Pervez Khattak or even form his own party.
Qaiser speech was taken off air while he was still speaking, similar to Omar Ayub’s speech on Sunday.
