| Fawad suggests SC to form independent Commission to probe threat letter
| Shahbaz claims Opposition was discussing No-Trust Move days before Imran’s “threat letter controversy” | Announces govt will form committee to probe letter; invite DG ISI, diplomat who wrote letter, other stakeholders | PTI also pleads SC to form full Court on Presidential Reference
By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: After being elected as the 23rd prime minister of Pakistan following Imran Khan’s unceremonious ouster through the no-trust motion, Shahbaz Sharif vowed that his government will probe the letter-gate scandal and reveal the facts before the public.
Reacting to the news, former information minister Fawad Chaudhry took to Twitter and rejected the newly-elected premier’s offer.
“We reject Shahbaz Sharif’s offer to probe the letter-gate scandal as it is a vicious attempt to give himself an NRO,” he said. “The Supreme Court should form an independent commission to investigate the letter-gate scandal, headed by a person with a clean record.”
During his first speech as the premier at the National Assembly on Monday, PM Shahbaz had vowed that his government will launch an investigation into the threat letter controversy.
He added that the Opposition was discussing the no-confidence motion days before Imran Khan’s “concocted threat letter controversy”.
“They say that this letter came to them on March 7, but our decisions were made way before that, so, if [what the previous government claimed] is a lie, then the matter should be disclosed transparently before the public,” he said.
Therefore, PM Shehbaz Sharif announced that the parliament’s security committee would be given a briefing on the “threat letter” to the members of the committee in presence of the armed forces personnel and bureaucrats — the director-general Inter-Services Intelligence, foreign secretary, and the ambassador who wrote it, who has now been transferred to Brussels.
“If there’s an iota of evidence that we were backed by foreign conspirators […] then with you Mr speaker and God as my witness, I will not think for another second and resign from the office of the prime minister,” PM Shehbaz Sharif said, vowing to hold an in-camera session of the security committee at the earliest.
Shehbaz secured 174 votes as opposed to PTI’s candidate Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who received no votes after his party decided to boycott the polling process.
The poll took place under the chairmanship of MNA Ayaz Sadiq, two days after the lower house of Parliament voted in favour of removing Imran Khan from office, following a nearly 14-hour standoff between the Opposition and Khan’s ruling party that started on Saturday morning.
Meanwhile, The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Monday pleaded the Supreme Court to constitute a full court to hear a presidential reference seeking interpretation of Article 63-A of the Constitution.
The application drawn by Advocate Babar Awan prayed that the presidential reference be placed before a full court. The application stated that this CMA be allowed to uphold the dignity of all the constitutional institutions of Pakistan and to meet the ends of justice.
A five-member larger bench of the apex court headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial will hear the case on Tuesday.
