Daily Times

Leaders of the ruling Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) coalition harshly criticised President Dr Arif Alvi on Monday after he unilaterally announced a date for elections on the Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial assemblies. Leaders of the ruling alliance slammed Alvi or what they called “transgression of his authorities” as President of Pakistan. Answering a question from a reporter outside Parliament House, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif remarked that President Alvi was “crossing his limits”. “The president is transgressing his authority by giving elections date for provincial assembly polls. What role does he have in provincial elections?” the minister later said on the floor of the Parliament. “He (Alvi) is working as a PTI party member and does not respect his role as president. It is our history and many “Number 2” people have been appointed to such “Number 1″ roles,” he said. Asif said the House reserves the right to “move legally according to the constitution against such transgressions”. Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah remarked that Alvi was taking actions to “invite trouble”, and that he should continue to work as president staying with the Constitution. “Do not make the office of the President a den for blackmailing others.

The president has no role in giving dates for elections. He should not force the ECP to carry out his illegal and unconstitutional orders,” he said in a tweet. PDM leader and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam-Fazl (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman also hurled harsh criticism at the president. “The way Arif Alvi, thinking of himself as a monarch and a PTI worker, has trampled upon and violated the Constitution, the way he has interfered into affairs of the governor and ECP. This is clearly misconduct and the Election Commission should take strictly action against it,” he said in a statement on Twitter. Meanwhile, former Chairman Senate and Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) leader Mian Raza Rabbani issued a detailed press statement, pointing out nine occasions on which he said the president had transgressed his role as president.

“The Constitution, 19793, has been reduced to a green book with no soul by all stake holders. It provides for Elections within 90 days of the dissolution of a Assembly. It provides no role for the President in the announcing of such date for a Provincial Assembly,” read the statement. Rabbani said: “the President should stop pontificating on constitutionalism given the fact that, he: (i) accepted the Advice of a Prime Minister under disqualification of Article 95, Constitution, 1973, and dissolved the National Assembly; (ii) refused to give oath to a Prime Minister and his Cabinet, duly elected under the Constitution, 1973; (iii) refused to sign on the Advice of the Prime Minister of the removal of the Governor, Punjab; (iv) failed to nominate a person to administer oath to the Chief Minister Punjab as per instructions of the Lahore High Court; (v) filed References in the Supreme Court under Article 209, Constitution, 1973, against sitting Judges of the Superior Courts; (vi) appointment of two Members of the Election Commission in contravention of the Constitution; (vii) promulgation of Ordinance without application of mind in contravention of Article 89(1), Constitution, 1973; (viii) removal of Ombudsman, which was set aside by the Islamabad High Court; and (ix) filing of a Reference in the Supreme Court under Article 186, Constitution, 1973, in furtherance of a political agenda – seeking interpretation of Article 63A, Constitution, 1973.”