Hometown glory: I’m here to stay, says Gilani

Claims credit for successfully holding Senate elections.


Owais Jafri March 03, 2012

MULTAN: Buoyant after his party’s strong showing in Senate elections, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has said that he will remain in Pakistan, and that no premier will come from outside, or leave the country.

“No caretaker … or chair-taker will come [in Pakistan],” Gilani said while addressing the inauguration ceremony of Air University’s new campus in Multan. The prime minister is currently facing a contempt of court notice by the Supreme Court for not complying with its orders regarding the National Reconciliation Order case.

If charged, Gilani may have to step down and serve a six-month jail term.

PPP’s ‘achievements’

Boasting about the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party’s achievements, Gilani said the government has fulfilled the promise of organising the Senate elections on time.

“The budget of May will be the first 5th budget by any democratic government of Pakistan,” he added.

The premier also claimed credit for being more open to criticism and opposition than any government in the country’s history.

“The PPP always wants to see an independent and empowered parliament, judiciary and media but they all have to work within the limits of the law and the Constitution. There is no restriction on the media and there won’t be any in the future,” Gilani said.

He added that the movements for Bahawalpur and Hazara provinces were meant to divert attention from the formation of a Seraiki province, which, he said, ‘is the real issue’.

US or Iran

The premier also reiterated resolve to work with Iran and the gas pipeline deal, despite US pressure. The Pakistan-US relations have seen fluctuations but relations with Iran have been consistently good, Gilani said.

“We will accept no foreign pressure,” he said, adding that the decisions with Iran would be independent and based on the priority of Pakistan’s interests.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4th, 2012.

COMMENTS (16)

Saleem khan | 12 years ago | Reply

@yousaf;

No one deny that Pakistan is our Identity. And seariki too strongly believe it.. even Bengali too dont deny but just think i Bengali were patriot ( no doubt) then why do bangladesh come into exist. Because leadership of Pakistan tried to exploit their resources and do not tret them on equal bases. justice was not there. And taking advantage of this sense of deprivation india start conspiracy and at last Bangladesh came int exist.

I am just talking about justice. Every province has some resource and on respective resources there is quota ( etc) of native land or province. there is quota of Army, medical, engineering etc.Our simple question is why don't we have right to use our resources of our betterment. in the field of Education, health, infrastructure etc.

Why Sharif bros and all dictators has right to snatch our resources.

My brother You can easily verify how much budget of Punjab do spent in seariki area. Despite seariki are comprise about 52% of Punjab population and generates 70% of total Punjab agriculture revenue.

By 5 sub nations or identities I mean equality in these sort of right (constitutionally)

this is most abstract representative of real issue.

I am happy that latest some peoples like you are there to really find the real issue. Don't confuse in with demand of Hazara province. hazara province is language based. hazara is most developed Division of KPK. But seariki cause is 40 year old. Since 1970 when one unit breaks and the Bahawalpur province was not made.

yousaf | 12 years ago | Reply

@ Saleem Khan---"As Pakistan has mainly 5 different nations"?? what exactly do you mean by this statement of yours?.In a way may be,you are right,because if Pakistan was one nation the likes of you would not dare utter such words.My thought goes to the blood of millions during riots of 47,which,all looks to have gone down the drain.Then,we thought we were making ONE nation

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