Daily Times

Following the President’s recent refusal to sign the Supreme Court (Practice and Procedure) Bill, Minister of State for Petroleum Dr. Musadik Malik on Saturday said that the bill will now be presented for approval in a joint session of Parliament.

Talking to a private news channel, he said “Questions were raised on the ruling from within the Supreme Court, which must be addressed,” he added.

Responding to a question about International Monetary Fund (IMF) talks, he said that Saudi Arabia had conveyed its commitment to the IMF for its bilateral financial support to Pakistan and the minister hoped for similar assurance from other countries.

“Saudi’s support will play an important role in reaching a ‘State Level Agreement’ with IMF but Pakistan was also in contact with other friendly countries like Qatar, China and others to bridge the financing gap”, he added.

To a query, the minister stated that relief measure was planned to provide relief of Rs.50 per liter specifically to small car and motorcycle riders who fall into the low-income bracket.

This relief, however, is not classified as a subsidy. Moreover, it is important to clarify that the cost of this relief measure will not be shouldered by the national treasury. Instead, the financial burden was placed on high-income individuals, he added.

Meanwhile, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Attaullah Tarar said that a conspiracy was hatched by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) against the country when the then deputy speaker Qasim Suri announced dissolution of the National Assembly unconstitutionally.

Later, two provincial assemblies of Punjab and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa were also dissolved by the PTI government illegally, he added.

Addressing a press conference, he said that the assembly could not be dissolved after a no confidence motion was presented in the house. It was unprecedented in the history that the votes cast in favour of the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) alliance candidate in the Punjab province were not counted and the members were also de-seated, he added.

The SAPM recalled that no meeting of the PTI parliamentary party in Punjab was held, and an attempt was made to rewrite the Constitution just to facilitate a political party. He said that it was surprising that elections were announced in Punjab whereas no decision was taken on Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Assembly.

He said elections should be held across the country simultaneously as the PTI had nothing to do with the country and it was bent upon spreading chaos and anarchy in society. He said the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) was never afraid of going into elections; however, it wanted that level playing field should be ensured for all parties.

The SAPM said the Parliament termed the Supreme Court decision an interference in its affairs, while Justice Athar Minallah said in his dissenting note that suo motu notice should be taken by keeping in mind intentions of the petitioner. He said that the Parliament was the supreme institution of the country and it had passed a resolution over the court judgment.