Gilani brushes past army statement saga

I do not want to revisit the matter and we have acted against those responsible, says PM.

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani wants to move beyond the series of statements that almost cost him his government.

In a briefing at the Prime Minister House on Sunday upon his return from Davos, where he was attending the World Economic Forum, he refused to talk about his earlier statement about the responses of army and intelligence chiefs in the Memogate case before the Supreme Court.

“I do not want to revisit the matter. We acted against those responsible,” he said, referring to former defence secretary Naeem Khalid Lodhi who the premier sacked after the Inter-Services Public Relations issued a strong-worded rejoined to Gilani’s own statement in China.

Talking about the Parliamentary Committee on National Security and its recommendations on Nato supply resumption, the prime minister said he had not received them yet. “The people will decide on what Pakistan’s relations should be with the US.”

He said that President Asif Ali Zardari will be addressing the parliament at the scheduled time. “He will become the only president in the history of this country to address the parliament for the fifth time,” said the prime minister, who prides himself for being the ‘longest-serving’ chief executive of the country. “While all others have only spoken, he has in reality defended the country’s interests.”

Confidently asserting that the incumbent government will present the federal budget in May, he said that the administration will ensure free and transparent general elections. He said the government is seeking a consensus with opposition parties on the election commission bill.

He said that all parties will be taken into consensus on the 20^th amendment issue.

Taking a covert jibe at the Punjab administration, currently battling with mass deaths of heart patients from the fatal reaction of free medicines handed out at the Punjab Institute of Cardiology, he said he was saddened at the unfortunate deaths. He said that Punjab was the only hurdle in the establishment of a Drug Regulatory Authority.