Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani continued to defend the National Assembly speaker in the aftermath of her decision to dismiss calls to disqualify him following his conviction in a contempt of court case.
Addressing a rally in Narowal on Saturday, the premier scoffed at the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)’s calls for him to step down, whimsically questioning the party leadership’s rhetoric in the aftermath of the speaker’s decision.
“One [Sharif] brother says that he doesn’t accept the president, the other brother says he doesn’t accept the prime minister. Now, a new person has emerged, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, who says he doesn’t accept the speaker. What kind of a leadership is this?”
He claimed that no party was stronger than the PPP in all four provinces, in terms of power and mandate.
Gilani criticised the threat of a long march by the Punjab government against the federal government, and said that “the right time for a long march was during former dictator Pervez Musharraf’s era, when judges were in jails and the media was restrained.”
Taking a jibe at PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif and Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, he went on to add that “you should have come back from Jeddah and held a long march for the people and the judiciary. You made a deal and left the country. We are the ones who fought for democracy,” Gilani claimed.
Premier Gilani reiterated that PPP’s victory in the recent by-elections reflected the party’s popularity among the masses.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 27th, 2012.
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