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Sunday, October 02, 2011
Ready to talk to anyone for peace: Gilani* PM says nobody will be allowed to cast an evil eye on Pakistan * APC proves united stance of our nation on national security
MULTAN: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Saturday said that Pakistan was ready to hold talks with everyone for peace and could go to any extent to achieve this objective.
The prime minister said that the successful holding of All-Parties Conference (APC) testified the fact that Pakistani nation was united on the issue of country’s security and defence.
“We will never allow anyone even to have ill-thinking about Pakistan’s security. We do not desire war and want peace in the country and beyond. Pakistan can play an important role in peace and we will do it,” Gilani told a historic gathering in Bili Wala town, some 30 kilometers from Multan where he laid the foundation stone of Khanewal-Multan section of Multan-Faisalabad motorway.
“All the country’s political forces stand shoulder to shoulder for Pakistan’s security interests,” he said.
He, however, made it clear that Pakistan would talk on the basis of equality and mutual respect, by keeping in view the country’s national interests.
Gilani lauded the country’s political leaders, who responded positively on his call and sat together to discuss the issue of Pakistan’s security, while keeping their political differences aside.
He said that he could have summoned a joint sitting of parliament on this issue but he opted to call an APC so that the political parties that had boycotted the previous elections could be represented in this important national moot.
“The APC was aimed at sending a message to the world that on the issue of Pakistan’s security, the whole nation and political forces were united,” he said, adding that the APC proved that the Pakistani nation was ‘one like a rock’ on the issue of country’s security and defence.
The prime minister said that the Muslims were not inferior to anyone. He, however, criticised the extremist elements, who were bringing bad name to Islam.
Gilani said that the country’s elders including his ancestors rendered great sacrifices to get a separate homeland so how could they compromise on the national interests, adding, “My father was a signatory to Pakistan’s resolution.”
The prime minister, while talking about the assassination of former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, said Afghan President Hamid Karzai had some misunderstanding on this issue.
”I want to convey to Karzai, who is my brother and friend, and with whom we have good relations, has some misunderstanding on the assassination of Prof Rabbani,” he remarked.
The prime minister said he himself visited Afghanistan to express condolences over the assassination of Rabbani, adding that Pakistan was ready to provide any security or intelligence assistance in this respect.
“They cannot doubt us. Pakistanis are a self-respecting nation. Pakistan neither interferes in anyone’s affairs nor allows anyone’s interference in our affairs,” he stressed.
The prime minister felicitated the nation as well as the country’s political forces that it was due to the APC meeting that the United States had sent a message that they needed Pakistan and that they could not win the war without it.
“It is due to APC as well as the unity of Pakistan’s political leaders that the US has a sent a message that they need Pakistan,” he said. app
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk