Bilawal Bhutto vows to fight off threat to Constitution

Islamabad: The PPP on Sunday pledged to defeat the mindset that considered the Constitution as “just a piece of paper”, saying the document has been under attack ever since it was framed but the party would not hesitate from rendering any sacrifice necessary to protect it.

Amid the political volatility and a face-off between the government and the judiciary, the PPP leadership has made it clear that parliament was the “biggest court of the country” as it belonged to the people and everyone would have to surrender before its will.

The top PPP leadership said those who treated the document, which guaranteed rights to people as a piece of paper, believed that they were beyond the law and the Constitution was their enemy.

It added that the country was facing several difficulties today as some elements had deviated from the Constitution.

“The PPP stands by the Constitution and the democratic system as always,” party chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who is also the country’s foreign minister, said in a statement.

He added that his party was determined to finally defeat the mindset that considered the Constitution as “just a piece of paper”.

The PPP chairman’s statement was apparently in response to the remarks of the late former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, who had once said: “I think the Constitution is just a piece of paper to be thrown in the dustbin.”

Bilawal said the Constitution had been under attack ever since it was framed, saying some elements did not tolerate the fact that the people received their due rights, the provinces owned their resources, and all were equal before the law.

“The approach that considers itself beyond the law considers the 1973 Constitution as its enemy,” the PPP chairman said.

He added that the history of the PPP in terms of framing and safeguarding the Constitution was unparalleled.

Bilawal said his mother, former premier Benazir Bhutto, and father, ex-president Asif Ali Zardari, had restored the 1973 Constitution to its original form by successfully removing the “dictatorial pollution” enacted into the document by military dictators Gen Ziaul Haq and Musharraf.