News
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Zardari went to Dubai hospital due to life threats
Taking memo scandal to SC a conspiracy: Gilani
* PM tells rivals there will be no election if he resigns, and they go to
* All state institutions working within ambit
By Tanveer Ahmed
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, on Wednesday, dubbed the memogate scandal a conspiracy against parliament, and advised the political rivals to show patience, saying they would not get anything if he resigned from the office.
“If I resign from the office, you would not be able to form government, because if I go, and you too, then there would not be any election,” Gilani told political opponents while responding to members’ points in the Senate. A usually calm and composed prime minister’s outburst at the political rivals also carried advice for them, asking them to support parliament and democracy.
“If they dislike me or President Asif Zardari, then they should go for vote of no-confidence and impeachment. But show support for democracy and parliament,” the premier pleaded in the House where members from across the party lines spoke to express their views while the opposition benches came down hard on the Gilani-led government over its management of the affairs of the country.
Gilani declared that we are not “imported people” who have been brought in to rule the country but elected one and would remain here whether in the government or outside it. He ruled out the possibility of absolute majority government in the future, saying that coalition governments would be formed because no party is likely to attain absolute majority.
The prime minister emphasised that it was not important whether he remained in office or not but parliament should continue functioning. He asserted that if dictatorship was brought in, the media, civil society and world would not support it. On the memogate scandal, Gilani said that the issue is with the Parliamentary Committee on National Security and the Supreme Court. He, however, termed it a conspiracy against parliament because the president is part of this institution and fingers were being pointed at him. He questioned the credibility of the person behind the memo fiasco, US-American businessman Mansoor Ijaz, saying he was involved in writing articles against national institutions. He urged that tendency of labelling people traitor should end in the country. He disclosed that one member of the House was in contact with Mansoor Ijaz, and termed it a conspiracy against parliament. Gilani said all the state institutions were working within constitutional ambit and urged the nation to forge unity in its ranks to counter the challenges.
On the president’s ailment, Gilani said that as a human being he can get ill and he was being treated abroad because of threats against his life. “He (President Zardari) was ill, he feared life threats in Pakistan hospitals, that was the reason he did not want to go to any hospital of Pakistan,” the prime minister said. Spealing about the NATO attack on border posts, he said that government took the principle stand on it and that now the ball is in the court of parliament, whose security committee is looking into the incident. He said that it is the resolve of the government that now all the policies would be decided in parliament.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk