NA’s dissolution: AWP condemns govt’s move

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The Awami Workers Party (AWP) has strongly condemned the ‘arbitrary and entirely unconstitutional’ decision by Prime Minister Imran Khan to dissolve the National Assembly so as to avoid being voted out of office after the PTI government lost a majority in the lower house of parliament.

‘The AWP has always stood firmly in support of constitutional rule and parliamentary democracy. The party warns that Imran Khan’s intransigence in the face of the entirely constitutional vote of no-confidence process leaves Pakistan vulnerable to another prolonged period of unconstitutional rule, and, in the worst-case scenario, martial law’, read a statement issued by the party.

AWP President Yousuf Mustikhan, General Secretary Bakhshal Thalho, senior vice-president Akhtar Hussain have said that the current impasse is not simply a constitutional crisis. It reflects the complete failure of the Pakistani ruling class, headed by the military establishment, to create a stable political and economic order that resembles a functional democracy.

They said, the PTI itself was thrust into power by the establishment and it is now clear that this was a disastrous experiment that has exacerbated Pakistan’s status as a rentier state of imperial powers, where religion is weaponized, natural resources pillaged relentlessly and the working masses deprived of their democratic right to rule.

‘We appeal to the Supreme Court to immediately take notice of unconstitutional steps affecting lives of the people of Pakistan. We also urged the CJP to constitute full bench of the Supreme Court comprising all judges and decide the constitutionality of the issues’, said the party leaders.

The statement further read that, the AWP believes that IK has committed a high treason by trampling the constitution. Hence a high treason case must be initiated against Imran Khan, Fawad Choudhry and Deputy Speaker Qasim Suri under Article 6 of the Constitution.

The party leaders called upon all genuinely democratic, progressive and secular political forces to close ranks and build a genuine alternative to Pakistan’s bourgeois politicians and the military establishment to whom all mainstream parties are beholden.