'Breaking the constitution isn't a surprise, it's treason': Bilawal

Islamabad: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that it is very important that the views of other participants in the meeting of the National Security Committee also come to light as according to Prime Minister Imran Khan 70 per cent of the parliament (197) members are traitors.

In an exclusive interview with the BBC's Usman Zahid, the PPP stalwart said he demanded an explanation from the Pakistani military so that the agencies could clarify their position and state whether 197 members were declared traitors in the national security meeting?

He said the minutes of the meeting would be available or that the institutions themselves could explain the truth about the threatening letter being discussed at the national security meeting.

Bialwal said the declaration issued by the National Security Council didn't mention any external conspiracy, adding the statement mentioned non-diplomatic language and unnecessary interference in the internal affairs of the country.

"So it is very important that this matter be made clear not only to the people but also to the judiciary."

He said Khan tried to use this non-political forum (National Security Committee) for his politics which is unfortunate, adding the premier had used this excuse to violate the constitution and had run away from the no-confidence motion.

"What do you think is the harm in elections without returning what happened in Parliament?"

The PPP leader said that "we have been struggling for a long time to overthrow the elected government of Imran Khan because his government has created an economic crisis in the country and every Pakistani is facing unemployment, and poverty.

"We have been fighting against this government for three years now and we have to fight against this government not only outside the parliament but also inside the parliament," he said. The government has to end.

"With this move we overthrew his government, so if we were doing the politics of the general opposition, we should have been happy about that, but we wanted to see the government in a constitutional way," he said. Let's end it and move towards a fair and transparent election in a democratic way.

He said the move by the prime minister on April 3 was an unconstitutional coup so that he could remain prime minister for another three or four days.

Imran Khan called his move a surprise, was it all a surprise for the opposition?

In response to this question, PPP chairperson Bilawal Bhutto said, "If Imran Khan takes any unconstitutional or undemocratic step, it is not unexpected for him." But the fact is that what the government is calling a surprise is unconstitutional and you cannot call a violation of the constitution a surprise.

"Breaking the constitution is not a joke, it is a crime of treason and a violation of Article Six," he added.

Bilawal further said that on the initiative of the government and the intervention of the Prime Minister in the peaceful transfer of power, we think that this is a coup d'etat of Imran Khan.

"We appeal to the higher judiciary that we may not be able to stop the military coup of General Zia and General Musharraf to stop this coup of Imran Khan," he said.

"We are ready for a fair and transparent election, but if we violate the constitution and move towards an election, no one will believe in holding a fair and transparent election."

Do you think that Imran Khan has pushed the country's politics back to the 90's? In response to this question, Bilawal Bhutto said that today's Pakistan is not the Pakistan of the nineties. "Imran Khan has no idea how serious its far-reaching consequences are."

"They are still celebrating today when we overthrew their government and they are still celebrating by beating the House table on the day I declared them elected," he said. It took them a while to understand the meaning of selected. "

"Today he (Imran Khan) is celebrating, tomorrow he will know that we have overthrown his government. But we believe in the constitution and democracy, so we thought that if Imran Khan's government had to be sent home, it would be done in a democratic way," the PPP leader concluded.

SOURCE: BBC URDU