F.P. Report
ISLAMABAD: President of Pakistan and President Pakistan Peoples Party Parliamentarians, Asif Ali Zardari addressing the National Assembly said that he is a witness of history. “By the grace of the Almighty Allah, we were able to restore the 1973 Constitution. However, what was dreamt by Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Wali Khan, Mufti Mehmood and others remains to be fulfilled”.
The Constitution of Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was suspended in the garb of a new religious order. The PPP has never used religion for its political gain. I have spent fourteen years of solitary confinement in prison and walked the halls of history, President Zardari said. Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto used to say that some things are taken to the grave. This is because we are among those who created Pakistan and also are responsible for protecting it. We will not leave the future generations with a divided country. We will not let anyone play with the Constitution. Those trying to create enmity among allies will not be successful. This is not the first time that the court has given a notice. Masood Sharif was also given a notice to explain himself for bugging the court. He is on record to have stated that the court was engaging in politics and it was his duty as the DG of the Intelligence Bureau to intervene.
The Pakistan Peoples Party has always raised the slogan of Pakistan. We have been protecting Pakistan and our determination is the same today. As long as we can, we will help the country and its democracy flourish. People keep saying that the country will default and go bankrupt. Did Japan go bankrupt? Did Korea go bankrupt? There was a time when Argentina’s currency was at par with the dollar and today, it is faring below ours. There was a time when India, a country ten times bigger than ours, had only a billion dollar in its reserves and sent its gold to Switzerland to get a tranche from the IMF. Pakistan will surely emerge, and we will see to it that it does. Our country is that of commodities and they hold value in the world today.
President Zardari said that he has witnessed suo-motus against him. Attempts were made to conjure witnesses but were unsuccessful. My sister was taken to the prison at midnight on the occasion of Eid. No suo-motu was taken at the time. There were cameras in our washrooms, and we submitted applications but no development took place. A listening device was caught in my hospital room and presented before the court but no action was taken.
We unitedly made the 18th Amendment and NFC Awards possible. We raised our voices for the rights of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Balochistan will evolve and is home to people with political minds, but we have to talk to them and engage them. Currently, an enemy state has created an environment that does not allow for talks to take place. However, we will go to Balochistan and to KP. Under PPP, Pakistan signed the currency swap with five countries. Today, the world is following suit as counties such as China, Russia, Malaysia and India are beginning inter-currency transactions.
India buys oil from Russia, refines it and then exports it. There is nothing that Pakistan cannot do. Good things take time and rushed judgements are hushed judgements as they do not strengthen democracy or the country but pave the way for chaos. We cannot afford chaos. We can request the PM for a dialogue with the opposition, but they have to come to him as he is the PM. The government of its time, led by the PM is the only valid authority to do a dialogue. One cannot walk into a dialogue with pre-conditions. It does not suit a government to go into a clash. We cannot go into a clash at a time when people cannot feed their children. We know that they have enough money to pay their workers to work up a riot. We know where the money is coming from. The funds given to them by the people are for the sake of charity and they have no right to use them for their politics.
The court in its own judgement had earlier stated that all judges are equal. How can it not consider the judgements of its fellow judges? The whole nation needs to think and ponder. Rest assured, we are not weak as we are political forces. We do not sit here because somebody made us do so, but because we have won our elections, the majority, the no-confidence against Tiger Niazi and we have won the vote of confidence. We did not ask him to walk out of the Parliament, he did that himself. Now, he is pressurising the courts and we cannot accept some portion of the judiciary or the ex-establishment ganging up on us. We will fight as we have no fear of these so-called ‘democrats’. If they think we can be cowed down, they have got another thing coming, President Zardari said. The NRO was the apology that was owed to us. It was our aim to have it be written in history that we were apologised to. We have given this soil our blood and will continue to do so, President Zardari resolved.
Zardari urges PM to hold talks with opposition
