اردو
  • Zahid Hamid says PPP removed this very article from constitution in 1975

    Federal Law Minister Zahid Hamid file photo Federal Law Minister Zahid Hamid

    Federal Law Minister on Tuesday retaliated against the bill presented by the opposition, saying that it was Pakistan People’s Party’s (PPP) government under its founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto who removed this clause from the constitution in 1975.

    Addressing the National Assembly, Zahid Hamid said that the law had been reintroduced 25 years later by the former president Pervez Musharraf in 2000 because he wanted to keep Pakistan Muslim Legaue – Nawaz (PML-N) leader Nawaz Sharif and the then chairperson of PPP Benazir Bhutto out of the electoral process.

    He said that the clause when introduced by Musharraf had a mala fide intent behind it. “Panama Papers came to the fore in April 2016 while the clause had been finalised in November 2014, one and half years ahead of the issue surfacing first”, he said.

    He told that the issue was discussed in the committee meetings where senior members of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and PPP, including Dr Arif Alvi and Naveed Qamar, were present but both the parties were moving a bill against the same provision today.