News
Sunday, November 13, 2011
PPP doesn’t need to show muscles: Gilani
* PM says agencies are not involved in making PTI public meeting in Lahore successful
* PPP has deep roots in people and it will win next elections
Staff Report
LAHORE: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Saturday said that the government didn’t need to show its political strength.
“Since, we are in the government, and the government doesn’t need to show power or muscles to prove its strength”, the prime minister said while talking to the media after addressing the 125th year of celebrations of the Aitchison College.
He also rejected the allegations of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI) and other political parties about the alleged involvement of agencies in the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf’s public meeting in Lahore.
“Those who talk of agencies’ involvement in everything must understand that the agencies are with the incumbent government,” he said, adding that the agencies played no role in making the PTI’s public meeting successful.
He said there was no doubt that Imran Khan managed a successful rally in Lahore, but there were many more things to do. He said that the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) had deep roots in the people and it would win the next general elections.
He said that most of the political parties were coalition partners of the federal government, so the parties or the public were not wary of democratic setup.
The prime minister said the Pakistani nation was confronted with terrorism and extremism. “It is not mere a physical fight rather its a battle of ideas, and we need to defeat the idea to eliminate terrorism and extremism in the first stage.” Gilani stressed upon intellectuals, religious scholars, academia, students and all other segments of society to play their due role in the national development. “An inferior idea can be killed by a superior idea,” he quoted Benazir Bhutto as having said.
In this context, he said it was incumbent upon teachers, including of the Aitchison College, to eliminate terrorism and extremism by inculcating the idea of brotherhood, love, peace and harmony in their students. The prime minister said, “The world is facing many challenges, which can not only reset our direction but also impact our future. It is a complex world defined by the forces of change and evolution, and only those nations and individuals can compete in this high tech environment that have done their homework well in advance and learn knowledge in the pivot of progress and development.”
In today’s globalised world, the knowledge has been acknowledged as an agent of growth and development, for which educational institutions must have to become the hub of research and creative activities, he added.
Gilani said, “The staggering development in science and technology has stunned the human psyche, and we have to focus on the promotion of quality education and human resources development to ensure socio-economic uplift in the country.” After the Chinese example, he said, the population should not be considered as a burden any more. “Pakistan’s demographic potential is huge, especially the youth, but we need to harness the energy of the youth and put them into productive use,” he maintained. The prime minister congratulated the AC management, faculty and students on the festive occasion.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk