Benazir’s vision: PPP manifesto 80% implemented, says PM Gilani

Gilani says PPP is following the politics of reconciliation and will keep pursuing Benazir's ideology.

LARKANA: Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani has said that the government has already implemented 80 per cent of the manifesto given by the late Benazir Bhutto.

Speaking to reporters after paying his respects to the slain leader at her tomb at Garhi Khuda Buksh on Sunday, he said “we make a solemn vow at Benazir’s mazar that we will keep implementing upon her programme”.

He said he was part of the committee which finalised the party manifesto and whatever she had written in that document has largely been fulfilled. He said the rest will be acted upon soon. “We will keep our promises and let not people despair,” he remarked.

He said ours is the politics of reconciliation and we will keep pursuing Benazir’s ideology.

The premier said that Altaf Hussain and Maulana Fazl have their own parties and separate manifestos “but we are united in the country’s larger interest and in the war on terror”.

He said the investigation into the assassination of Benazir Bhutto is ongoing while the court is yet to pronounce its verdict. The party’s central executive committee (CEC) will be briefed on unmasking the BB’s murderers, he said.

Replying to a question, he said the reformed general sales tax (RGST) will have to be enforced at all cost. “If not we, then others will enforce it,” he quipped, and went on to add that “this (tax) will have no effect on our politics of accommodation”.

He said Maulana Fazl talks nicely and he has worked with us together. If he has criticised me I have not minded it at all, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 27^th, 2010.