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Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Gilani challenges authorities to arrest him

Staff Report

ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Tuesday threw down the gauntlet to the authorities to arrest him and declared that only parliament can call him.
“I have come to Islamabad and if anyone wants to arrest me then do it here to save the expense of going to Punjab,” he stated while talking to media outside the Parliament House after a meeting of Pakistan People’s Party Parliamentarians (PPPP) about the presidential election. Gilani, who is also senior vice chairman of the PPPP, is wanted by NAB over the appointment of former OGRA chairman Tauqir Sadiq, who is in custody over alleged corruption of billions of dollars.
Gilani said that it is being propagated that the Punjab government is not cooperating for his arrest, but there is no hurdle now that he is in Islamabad. He categorically stated that he would not appear before any authority and would defend his immunity in these cases as he did for President Asif Ali Zardari in the National Reconciliation Ordinance case.
Gilani has said that the court should send the legislators home if it wants to run the government alongside running the judiciary. He said “law of pen and law of NAB” governs this country. ‘’I had informed the president that the distance between Adiala Jail and Prime Minister’s House is short; I have already been there for my turn but had to take responsibility as prime minister at the president’s insistence,” he further said. He said that in the past judiciary had cleared him in the cases for which he had to go behind the bars.
Gilani said audit points were raised against the senate chairman and prime minister. “How can my one appointment be wrong when my act of appointing army chief, DG ISI and other chiefs, including chief justice, be right? Revenge culture existed due to which I had to go behind bars for granting jobs to people who are still providing services in the assembly secretariat,” the former prime minister remarked. He further said, ‘’I took a stand on presidential immunity and did not obey illegal directions of the chief justice and had to write to judiciary that president enjoys immunity. If I can take a stand on immunity to president then I can take a stand on immunity to myself.”

Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk

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