News
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Oust me if you canBy Tanveer Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: Throwing a challenge to opposition to bring a no-confidence motion against him, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said on Friday nobody could remove him from his office except the National Assembly (NA) speaker.
“Am I not an elected prime minister? Do I not represent 180 million people of Pakistan? Nobody can remove me from the office of prime minister except you madam speaker,” Gilani told the NA a day after the Supreme Court convicted him in a contempt of court case.
“Whatever the decisions are, an elected prime minister cannot be removed without due process,” he said. “What is my fault? What wrong have I committed? I have protected the constitution of the country,” Gilani said. The prime minister said the current parliament had passed 18th, 19th and 20th amendments but no one neither objected to the presidential immunity nor was any dissenting note submitted.
Across the world, he added, heads of states enjoyed immunity under the Vienna Convention, “Why is this immunity not for the incumbent president?” he questioned. “I have not been convicted for financial or moral corruption. I have been convicted for protecting the constitution,” Gilani said, and questioned, “How can’t they allow a unanimously elected prime minister in the House?”
“Don’t treat me as prime minister but I am member of this august House. Yes… you should not accept me as a member if the speaker de-notifies me.”
The prime minister came down hard on the PML-N, saying that “nobody could impose his decision or wish on us”. “We are elected people and have strived to uphold the constitution and respect of institutions.” “They cannot act like God. We have majority in both houses of parliament. They [PML-N leaders] should respect others. I challenge them… if they have courage, they should move a no-confidence motion against me,” Gilani said. Gilani said after former president Pervez Musharraf toppled Nawaz Sharif’s government in 1999, he had announced not to accept any parliament without Benazir Bhutto or Nawaz Sharif.
“We had condemned it at time when people of their own party were silent. I had contended that it was unconstitutional step and thus unacceptable to me,” said the prime minister. Gilani said the government had been maintaining an alliance with all political parties. “But they [the PML-N] cannot do so even for a single day. They are too much egoistic. We have accommodated them too by allocating funds worth billions of rupees,” he said.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk