Foreign Minister (FM) Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Thursday revealed that the night before the no-confidence motion, a message was sent to him to agree on early elections, otherwise martial law would be imposed.

“A day before no-confidence, I was threatened by the previous government to agree to hold immediate elections or martial law can be imposed,” said Bilawal in the National Assembly session, adding that the threat was sent through a former minister.

“The situation in Pakistan is at a crisis point; there should be no two views about it. Every institution of ours had been made controversial due to a selected man. The harm that Imran Khan and his former government have caused to the constitution, democracy, and institutions is before everyone. The former PM abrogated the constitution and attacked democracy. Former PM, deputy speaker, and the President on the nights of April 3rd, April 9th, and 10th till today are abrogating the constitution and refusing to follow it. How can this National Assembly, the Parliament ignore such an attack? Our constitution has been torn like a piece of paper in the past as well,” said Bilawal.

RELATED STORIES

“I am saying that we should take the attack seriously, and make a commission to investigate who was involved in this unconstitutional and undemocratic attack. As far as April 3rd is concerned, the Supreme Court clearly termed it unconstitutional in its decision. The people of Pakistan expect accountability of the former government abrogating the constitution while trying to escape a democratic process,” said the FM.

Bilawal further said, “Since this attack was ignored, the former PM thinks that he is a sacred cow and is roaming in the country while making attacks that are against the national interest and our national standing. This political instability is harming our economy. He thinks he is invincible since it was ignored that a government was formed through the worst-rigged elections.”

“We are not the undemocratic forces that used to call for accountability and elections, we do not believe in political engineering,” said Bilawal. The FM said that they had already demanded reforms. “We are democratic forces and we want transparent elections. Our demand earlier too was that we will carry out electoral reforms first, this is the clear policy of the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP).”

Giving a policy statement on Kashmir, the Foreign Minister said that India has been occupying Kashmir illegally since 1948. India changed the status of Illegally Occupied Kashmir (IOK) and India continues to violate the United Nations, Geneva Conventions.

Bilawal said that efforts were being made to convert the majority into a minority in occupied Kashmir. “We reject the report of the Delimitation Commission in Occupied Kashmir. The Indian government wants to stifle the voice of Muslims in Occupied Kashmir with new demarcations,” said Bilawal Bhutto.