President Zardari addresses rally, protests outside hall

President Zardari was addressing the Pakistani community in Birmingham on Saturday.

BIRMINGHAM: President Asif Ali Zardari said that he is on the European tour to tell people that countries are not run on aid, but trade is the only way to secure their future.

Addressing the Pakistani community in Birmingham on Saturday, the president said that the Pakistan People's Party is the most popular party in Pakistan.

He said that the government has had to take some unpopular decisions but it has always steered the country in the right direction.

He said that the PPP has always been fighting against anti-state elements.

The president said that some forces had advised the Pakistan People's Party to boycott the general elections but it went against them.

President faces protests

Scores of people staged protest demonstrations outside the Convention Centre on the occasion of President Asif Ali Zardari’s address to the PPP meeting on Saturday in Birmingham.

Hundreds of people belonging to PML-N and other opposition parties and the civil society participated in the demonstrations.

According to media reports, protesters voiced slogans against the president, when he along with Bilawal Bhutto and Pakistani High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hasan reached the Convention Center.

The protestors said that the president should not visit the United Kingdom leaving the hapless people of Pakistan at the mercy of raging floods. The president should share the miseries of Pakistani nation in such worst condition, they added.

Heavy contingent of police stopped the protestors from  entering into the Convention Center, however they continued their protest outside the center.