President Zardari to return in two weeks: Gilani

Gilani refuses to rule out closing Pakistan’s airspace, denies president had a stroke.

Political pundits have two more weeks to speculate about the president’s absence.

In an interview to the BBC on Sunday, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said that President Asif Ali Zardari is making “rapid improvement”, but needs rest and will take two more weeks to return home.

Gilani denied that the president had written a letter of resignation, as claimed by a source in Dubai. “Why should he write it?” asked Gilani. “He has the backing and support of the entire parliament.”

He further denied rumours that the president had suffered a stroke and the army was trying to oust him. Dismissing speculation about a quiet coup, he said: “Rumours are rumours.”

Shamsi airbase

As the last of US officers left the Shamsi airbase on Sunday, Gilani said that the base is now back in the hands of Pakistani forces.

The base was constructed by the UAE government and had been used by Americans for many years, he added.

The Americans had been given a 15-day deadline to vacate the base after the Nato attacks in Mohmand Agency on November 26 that killed 24 people.

BB murder case

A day after PML-N President Nawaz Sharif said the incumbent government had not done anything to bring the killers of former PPP chairperson and prime minister Benazir Bhutto to justice, Gilani said:  “High profile cases take time. There have been some murder cases in your country, which are yet to be resolved. This case is in court and the results should be awaited.”

“Those who had left Benazir dying have become ministers and advisers in this government,” Nawaz had said in a rally in Sindh on Saturday. When asked to comment on Nawaz’s allegations, the prime minister said: “I cannot stop him from saying such things or changing his opinion.”

Nato supplies

The prime minister said the government may continue to stop Nato supplies from being transported to Afghanistan via Pakistan, which have been blocked for two weeks now. However, Gilani refused to rule out closing Pakistan’s airspace to the US.

Negotiations with Taliban

The prime minister also denied a Pakistani Taliban claim that it was engaged in peace talks with his government.

But he added: “Whosoever surrenders and denounces violence, they are acceptable to us.”

Seraiki province

Speaking on the longstanding demand in southern Punjab to make a Seraiki province, the prime minister said that making the province was an issue too important to be left to the next parliament.

(Read: Is the ‘Get Zardari’ campaign democratic?)

Published in The Express Tribune, December 12^th, 2011.