Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Thursday that government does not believe in political victimisation, vowing to strengthen the democratic institutions. He said this while responding to opposition members allegations regarding victimising of their political workers.
The Prime Minister directed the Interior Advisor to co-ordinate with the provincial governments and redress their grievances. Prime Minister Gilani also thanked the opposition members for the vote of confidence and passing resolution for UN inquiry of the assassination of PPP slain chairperson, Benazir Bhutto.
Gilani also vowed to strengthen democracy and institutions by taking along the opposition. "People have great hope in this parliament and if this parliament again fails to deliver, they will be greatly disappointed," he remarked.
"That is why we talk of supremacy of parliament. We want strong institutions and opposition and for achieving this objective, we are ready to cooperate with the opposition."
"When People's Party and Pakistan Muslim League can work together then why not all the other parties", he added. He assured that his government would not victimise any political worker and said that he would personally look into such cases.
The Prime Minister directed Rehman Malik, the Advisor to Prime Minister on Interior Affairs to collect the data of cases from provinces and take remedial measures.
Earlier, trading of allegations and counter allegations were made in the House by treasury and opposition members. Pakistan People's Party and Muttahida Qaumi Movement apparently levelled charges against each other for violence and torturing of political workers in Sindh.
Abdul Qadir Patel alleged that his four polling agents were first abducted in Karachi, then they were tortured and killed but police did not nominate the culprits despite knowing them.
Dr Ghulam Haider of PML-Q said that the new government on one hand claims of following the policy of political reconciliation but on the other hand the Sindh government is engaged in preparing false cases against his workers and supporters. He then staged a token walk out from the House followed by all the opposition members. They all rejoined the parliament's proceeding after sometime.
Mehreen Anwar Raja and Farzana Raja of PPP reminded the opposition parties of what they termed worst 'political victimisation' during their government. They also demanded of the new government to review all the cases registered on political bases during the previous government regime.
An MQM legislator alleged that a police constable was tortured and his hand was cut in Hyderabad because he did not allowed PPP workers to rig the elections. The Sindh government is forcing the victim to withdraw the FIRs registered against the culprits.
Riaz Pirzada and Makhdoom Faisal Saleh Hayat of PML-Q drew the attention of the House particularly the Prime Minister towards the political victimisation. Riaz Hussain Pirzada said that this government could not run more than one and half year if it repeated the mistakes of past by crushing the opposition, asking the government to follow the policy of political reconciliation across the board. He warned that if this parliament fails to deliver as per wishes of the masses then democracy never would come in Pakistan as various forces are active to derail the democratic system.
Faisal Saleh Hayat said that opposition has set a new tradition by giving vote of confidence to the Prime Minister. He called for forgetting the past acrimony and advised the government to start a new era for the people of Pakistan where all the initiatives should be implemented across the board without the discrimination of treasury or opposition benches. He regretted that for the last three weeks it has been observed that past practices of coalition government and political victimisation is once again practised.
Comments
Comments are closed.