Pakistan: Calling army a failure of federal govt of PML-N

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Central leader of Pakistan People’s Party and Senator, Raza Rabbani has opposed the PML-N’s government decision of handing over Islamabad to army for three months.

He termed the move illogical. He said the party strongly opposed the handing over of Islamabad to the army. He added the decision is loaded with serious repercussions for the people and the country as it means not only the failure of the civil administration but also total suspension of the jurisdiction of the high courts. He added it also means setting up of military courts which cannot be permitted.

Rabbani said the PPP had always opposed invoking the Article 245 for calling army in aid of civil power whether it was in Karachi or other parts of the country. PPP Senator further said the situation in Islamabad was not worse than in any other part of the country to invite the army to fix it by vesting in them powers beyond the judicial oversight, he said.

He said calling the army was a proof that the Islamabad administration, which comes under the control of Interior Ministry of federal government, had failed. “If today, it is Islamabad then tomorrow it will be Karachi, Peshawar, Quetta, Lahore or indeed the whole country may be handed over to the army under Article 245.” Rabbani said the decision to hand over federal capital to the army will also send disturbing signals to the world about the prevailing security situation in the country.

He added that the decision reflects the penchant of the PML-N government to lean on the security establishment for everything be it meter reading or tracing of ghost schools or appointing monitors. It will further distort the already distorted civil-military equation, he added.