Pakistan

Post-disqualification: Gilani considers himself a ‘winner’ despite SC verdict

Says he had accepted SC's decision to disqualify him, but parliament had not.

Abdul Manan June 29, 2012

LAHORE:

Former premier Yousaf Raza Gilani considers himself a ‘winner’ despite his disqualification from office by the Supreme Court since, according to him, his stance had been endorsed by parliament.

Talking to reporters after he reached Lahore on Thursday, Gilani said his first wish was to see the current National Assembly complete its constitutional term. His second wish, he added, was to quit the office gracefully.

“Prime ministers come and go, but this is the first time in history that an outgoing prime minister participated in the ceremony for an incoming prime minister,” he said. The ousted premier maintained a “new Gilani exists in the PM House in the form of Prime Minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf.” Gilani further said that his party (PPP) had given him the honorary title of prime minister for life.

His third wish, he said, was to establish the supremacy of parliament. Gilani said he wanted to be disqualified through the NA Speaker’s office or through the parliament, but was instead ousted by extra-parliamentary forces. But since the Speaker and the parliament endorsed his stance, he considers himself the winner. Gilani added that by endorsing his stance, both the parliament and the Speaker had maintained the respect of Pakistan’s 180 million people.

In case he had been disqualified through either the Speaker or the parliament, Gilani claimed he would have quit politics, adding that in his 31-year career as a parliamentarian he always stood for the supremacy of parliament and the democratic set-up. Talking about his party’s role, he said the PPP could never imagine going against the constitution since the party gave it to the people of Pakistan in the first place.

Gilani also expressed a fourth wish; fair and transparent general elections in Pakistan. Hoping for its fulfillment, he said the people should elect whoever should assume the prime minister’s office.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 29^th, 2012.

COMMENTS (9)

Abid | 11 years ago | Reply If corruption was that big an issue, the India would not have grown so fast and had stabilized more over time with all the indicators of corruption going side by side like always. People have always been misguided about the corruption of lesser mortals. We find that those who we can approach easily have been tainted with all allegations of corruption between the heaven and the earth but we also find that they are easily accountable to us. But what will be said of those holy cows who are inaccessible, unaccountable and corrupt at the same time? After the court’s intervention in the policy matters for producing energy through short term stop-gap arrangements, we have neither power nor end to corruption. At least people would have been better off having one thing in abundance. Now the domestic consumers as well as industry find themselves on the same boat. Local leaders of opposition parties are literally having field day in en-cashing the situation which is getting worse day by day. People suffer unnecessarily because of court’s puritanical ways and the court has no solution to any crisis now. For all those who criticize the choice of Raja Pervez Ashraf as a PM, let me also remind them that even BB and Zulifqar Ali Bhutto were not acceptable to them. So little wonder then that Raja saheb can’t get favorable criticism from the same quarters.

Malik Waqar Haider Awan | 11 years ago | Reply

Plz don't cry over spilt milk. If he would have resigned after his conviction, we would called him Hon'ble, but he missed that chance for less than 2-Months.