Free judiciary, media linked with strong democracy
ISLAMABAD — Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that the independence of media and judiciary greatly depends on strong and stable democracy and urged all political forces to work for the strengthening of institutions and ignore those who are talking about mid-term polls and derailment of the system.
Talking to media persons at the Prime Minister’s House, Premier Gilani vowed to foil all conspiracies against democracy and like in the past, continue making sacrifices for the sake of democracy. To a question, the Prime Minister ruled out the possibility of mid-term elections saying that it would not be the solution to the problems and quickly added that most of the problems confronting the nation would have their answers upon completion of the five-year term of the incumbent government
To another question he said that like all democratic governments in the past, they were facing challenges too but the way they were tackling these challenges was positive. Moreover, they were taking along all the political forces.
He said that they were going by the constitution and certain political forces, who were not part of the Parliament, were talking about mid-term polls and quickly added that in the given situation mid-term polls would not be the answer to the problems facing the nation and said that those who had missed the last general elections now should wait for the completion of government’s mandated term.
To a question about the fake degrees issue, Prime Minister Gilani said that the Parliament was independent and sovereign and could legislate on any issue. However, he added that the matter regarding legislation about fake degrees was not brought to his notice.
Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that the judiciary has not delivered timely judgments on the fake degrees issue and had the judiciary quickly tackled the issue of fake degrees after the 2002 general elections, the problem would not have arisen now.
He recalled that till 1999 the judges’ footage was not shown on electronic media and their still pictures were only shown, but now things have changed and the media explosion has brought the judiciary into the limelight as well.
He said that the government, from the very first day, had introduced the policy of three Ds: Dialogue, Development and Deterrence and realizing the threats of terrorism, brought all the political forces, inside and outside the Parliament, on one platform so that a unanimous policy could be formed.
Recalling the severe criticism from certain religious quarters on the government’s strict policy against militancy, the Prime Minister said that now they too were compelled to say that there is no room for terrorism in Islam.
The Prime Minister said crushing terrorism is still the government’s top priority. There should be a national policy on security, he said, adding that the government believes the biggest reasons for terrorism are poverty, unemployment and a lack of educational facilities.
PPP was a federal party and it was ahead of all the other parties in rendering sacrifices for the restoration of democratic order, he underlined. They would take along all the parties but no one should remain under any delusion, he held.
Declining to comment on the statement of Chief Justice of Lahore High Court, Justice Kh. Sharif, the Prime Minister declared that the people should decide about it.
The cabinet committee had been set up to provide relief to the people in the holy month of Ramadan, he told.
He stated “ I belong to South Punjab and I am fully alive to the aspirations of the people of South Punjab. However any decision with respect to the creation of a province comprising of parts of South Punjab will be taken at an appropriate time. A very clear explanation existed in the constitution on this count, he remarked.
He told budgetary allocations for South Punjab had been increased in the budget for the fiscal 2010-11.
Source: The Nation
Date:7/3/2010
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