LAHORE – Though Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani does not see any immediate threat to his government by any means – constitutional or unconstitutional – yet he is mentally prepared to relinquish power, as he thinks he will be better off without it.
“I want to live politically rather than die politically,” the Premier remarked in his interaction with senior journalists from Lahore at his DHA residence on Tuesday.
He said though he did not foresee any move to dislodge present political set-up, yet the talk of change of government through unconstitutional means was uncalled for, especially at a time when country needed the present political dispensation the most in the wake of devastating floods. He said it was unfortunate to talk of such things.
“The country needs unity at this time. What benefit the country would have if any unconstitutional step is taken to dislodge the government,” the Prime Minister observed.
He said his family had been in politics and in power since independence, and it would make no difference if he were out of power.
“Neither I am chair-taker nor care-taker,” he further observed, adding that Parliament was his real strength.
“The people now talking of change in present set-up had given me three months time to run the show. Then I got extension for another three months from them followed by more extensions. Now they say you are surviving on bonus. Now the new date is in December,” the PM commented further on the issue.
“What options are available to get rid of us,” he asked, and then himself answered the question, saying that all available options to roll back the present system were undemocratic and unconstitutional. “Country’s future lies in democracy. Without it we will be taking a step in the backward direction,” he maintained.
Replying to a question regarding alleged murder plan of Lahore High Court Chief Justice Khawaja Muhammad Sharif, he said he had directed Interior Minister Rehman Malik to take the judiciary into confidence and order judicial inquiry to probe the allegations against the persons allegedly mentioned in the CID report. He said the government would also seek information from the ISI, IB and other intelligence agencies in this regard.
Talking about rehabilitation phase in the flood-hit areas, the Premier said that oversight council for rehabilitation of affectees would be notified soon as he had got names from the provinces. The federal government, he added, would also include its nominees in this body.
He said the assessment of losses would be undertaken by the experts from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank in order to keep the process transparent for correct assessment.
He said federal government would have no direct involvement in distribution of the foreign aid, so there would be no question of any corruption by anybody.
He said all details about foreign aid would be put on the website, and it would be distributed by the provincial governments.
Talking about the row between the Punjab government and Interior Minister Rehman Malik over distribution of Rs20,000 per family in the affected areas, Gilani said Malik wanted to take credit for Tameer-e-Watan cards and wanted to distribute them himself, “but I intervened on request of the Punjab Chief Minister and he was asked to hand them over to the Punjab government”.
He said distribution of Rs20, 000 among affected families each was the collective vision of all the chief ministers who supported the idea in a meeting of Council of Common Interests
“We have a success story of rehabilitation of 2.5 million IDPs of Swat and Malakand as everything was done in a transparent manner,” he said.
He said government had decided to give Rs100,000 to each affected family (inclusive of Rs20,000) for construction of their damaged houses through NADRA cards and ATM machines. “The government is not an insurance company to make amends for the entire loss,” he said.
He said it was an uphill task to issue 20 million cards to the affectees for the purpose.
He said philanthropists, NGOs and other institutions involved in providing relief to the flood victims should perform this task in coordination with each other and with the government agencies so that relief items could reach where they were really needed.
He said people wanted cash instead of food which was available in abundance.
To a question about getting drone technology from the US, Gilani said: “We would develop our own drone technology, and may be we have developed it.” He said drones did not differentiate between the militants and the innocent.
He said local government system should be put in place, but it was a provincial subject after passage of the 18th Amendment.
Replying to a question about Pak-India relations, he said wars were no solution to the disputes. He hoped that dialogue process between the two countries would resume sooner or later.
He said Pakistan was very important country for the world nations because of its involvement in the war on terror. “We are fighting for world peace, and world needs us,” he said, adding that this was the reason that UN and other forums at the international level were raising funds for the flood affectees of Pakistan. He said some countries had pledged to build bridges, schools and hospitals.
He said he would go to Brussels in the near future to sign trade agreement with European Union which would provide Pakistan an access to European markets with regard to countryÂ’s products. He said Pakistan needed trade and not aid from the Western nations.
He said government may exempt flood affectees from paying electricity bills, and currently it was making an assessment of the financial implications of the decision.
To a question, he called former president Pervez Musharraf an old friend and said that he could fulfil his desire by taking part in politics. “But the question arises what did he do during his eleven-year rule,” Gilani said.
Responding to a question about Mian Nawaz Sharif’s criticism of the government, the PM said: “Mian Sahib does so out of love for us but you people (media) take it seriously.”
“Unless our friends (Sharifs) join the government it could not be called a national government,” the PM remarked when a journalist said that a national government was already in place as demanded by certain political parties.
To another question, the PM said: “What is the criterion to determine whether people are with us or not.” According to him, elections were the only criterion to judge popularity of a political government. He reiterated that days of two-thirds majority government were over now.