Asad rules out talks with Imran

ISLAMABAD (INP): Minister for Communications Asad Mahmood Thursday ruled out dialogue with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on any political issue and called for initiating a judicial inquiry against him for violating the Constitution.
“No one should be allowed to violate the Constitution,” he said while speaking in the National Assembly. The minister alleged that “the judiciary is facilitating an accused person who does not bother to attend court proceedings, rather he has been given an opportunity to mark his court attendance while sitting in his car.” Referring to the apex court’s three-member bench decision regarding the delay in Punjab polls, he said justice was not done in the matter as an appeal of all the political parties regarding the constitution of a full court bench to hear the case was rejected. He reiterated the demand for the full-court bench to settle the matters about elections in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Asad said the coalition parties had not demanded a decision in their own favour or against Imran Khan but wanted a full court bench to hear the case. He said questions would arise on the transparency of elections in Punjab in the presence of a political government at the Center. The solution to the prevailing constitutional, political, and legal complications was in holding the elections simultaneously across the country and that also in a free and fair manner, he remarked. “All institutions will have to remain in their domains to ensure the supremacy of the Constitution,” the minister maintained. He said the country had been facing unprecedented challenges for the last many years but it stood firm and resolute, but today the nation had been divided, which was not good. Asad said the provincial assemblies of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa were dissolved at the whims of one person (Imran Khan) who just wanted to satisfy his ego.